Thornham pub manager Jack Atkinson in King’s Lynn court after causing crash that broke woman’s neck on A149

A pub manager suffered a “momentary lapse of concentration” which caused a serious crash, breaking a woman’s neck.

Jack Atkinson, 28, a manager at The Orange Tree in Thornham, appeared at Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, where he admitted causing serious injury by careless driving.

The court heard that the victim, a woman in her 40s, was driving on the A149 in Hunstanton on the way to her parents’ house on March 19.

She approached a corner at 50mph when she saw Atkinson, of Lynn Road in Snettisham, driving a Volkswagen Golf, veering onto her side of the road.

The pair collided, and the woman’s airbags went off. She got out of the car on the passenger side and Atkinson came to see if she was okay.

The emergency services were called, and both were checked over.

Initially, the woman thought she was okay and was released, but later suffered a lot of pain and went to her GP surgery.

She went to hospital, where it was discovered that she had broken her neck and suffered a slipped disc in her back.

A victim impact statement provided by the woman was read in court, which said she had to wear a brace for eight weeks and was in considerable amount of pain.

She struggled to sleep during that time and had to miss out on working at her job as a fitness trainer.

“At night, I couldn’t sleep and would walk around the room sobbing,” the statement read.

“The crash is at the back of my mind constantly. I know Jack must feel awful about it.”

The woman said that she was thankful that her dog, who she was on the way to collect from her parents, was not in the car at the time of the crash.

In mitigation, Tiffany Meredith put the crash down to a “momentary lapse of concentration” from Atkinson.

She said Atkinson has not drunk any alcohol for around ten years, and he “could not think of any reason” as to why he was distracted behind the wheel on that date.

“It is a winding road and he just veered over the edge,” Ms Meredith added.

“It was a terrible accident. Any one of us who drives could have a small veer into the other side of the road. It could happen to any one of us.”

Ms Meredith said Atkinson and the victim had bumped into each other since the crash and had a “nice” conversation.

Atkinson was disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined £961.

He will also pay a £384 victim surcharge and £85 in court costs.