Head-on crash driver guilty

A man with a Nigerian licence was driving on the wrong side of the road well before a head-on crash in which a woman was seriously injured, an Adelaide judge has found.

The prosecution had suggested that Udo Ikika Uduma suddenly drove on the incorrect side of the road, thinking he was in Nigeria where motorists drive on the right side.

After a judge-alone trial in the South Australian District Court, Judge Wayne Chivell found the 25-year-old aged care worker guilty of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm to Bettina Coscia.

Mrs Coscia suffered numerous injuries including leg fractures in the collision, which occurred just before midnight on December 3, 2010, in the Adelaide Hills.

“She has ongoing pain, physical disability, psychological difficulty, and permanent scarring,” Judge Chivell said in his judgment on Monday.

He rejected a defence suggestion that Uduma suddenly drove onto the wrong side after being blinded by Mrs Coscia’s headlights.

“I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that, for some reason which is not apparent, Mr Uduma was driving south on the incorrect side of the road, well prior to the impact, and did not do so as a result of being distracted by Mrs Coscia’s headlights,” he said.

The defence had submitted that the suggestion Uduma thought he was in Nigeria did not make sense because he had been in Australia for a substantial time and had driven extensively, including on country roads and at night.

The judge will hear sentencing submissions on November 13.

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