A senior who crashed a magistrate’s BMW has been ordered to pay $35,000 in damages.

Assistant Justice Jeffrey Elkinson ruled yesterday that Allan Robinson “failed to exercise the expected standard of care” that resulted in a crash involving Khamisi Tokunbo’s car.

Mr Tokunbo appeared before Justice Elkinson last week in civil court to request costs and damages from Mr Robinson.

Mr Robinson, who appeared as a lay litigant, said that Mr Tokunbo should share the costs equally as he was aware he had been drinking when he allowed him to drive his car.

But Justice Elkinson said: “He (Mr Robinson) had the opportunity when he felt dizzy, knowing that he had previously suffered blackouts, to pull over.

“Instead, he fastened his seatbelt, which gives an indication that he was at least concerned for his own safety but had a total disregard for other road users.”

The crash happened on the evening of January 19, 2019, on South Shore Road, near the public entrance to Elbow Beach in Paget, after the pair, both aged 64 at the time, had been drinking alcohol.

At the earlier hearing, Mr Robinson told the court that he visited Mr Tokunbo’s residence around noon that day to watch football over “a few cocktails”.

He said that at about 5pm he drove Mr Tokunbo in his 2006 BMW 3 Series Coupé to Southampton to collect some pies they planned to deliver to a Deborah Blakeney at her home in Smith’s.

Mr Robinson said that he had “three of four” more drinks while at the house and the two left for Mr Tokunbo’s residence around 7.20pm.

He told the court that he started to feel dizzy while behind the wheel, but ignored it because this happened frequently owing to his chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

But Mr Robinson added that he blacked out and later woke up in the hospital, where he learnt that he had crashed the car.

He refused to give a sample of blood to the police surgeon and was charged later for the refusal, for which he was fined $1,000 and banned from driving for 18 months.

Mr Tokunbo told the court that he knew Mr Robinson enjoyed a drink or two but did not know him to be a drinking man.

He said that he had either dozed off or closed his eyes on the ride home and felt the car strike the kerb near the public entrance to Elbow Beach.

Mr Tokunbo added that Mr Robinson had told him after the crash that he had taken medication earlier in the day and wondered whether mixing it with alcohol had caused him to black out.

Mr Tokunbo had the car written off as he said it was more prudent than having it repaired and he bought a similar model for $40,000.

He was able to get $5,000 from the salvage value hence he was asking for $35,000 from Mr Robinson.

Mr Robinson had earlier requested that, if he won the case, Mr Tokunbo pay him $18,000 for the “lawyer payout, pain and suffering due to large amounts of stress and injury caused”.

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