Blubberhouses crash: lorry driver banned for being three times over limit

A lorry driver who lost control on the A59 at Blubberhouses on Tuesday was three times over the drink-drive limit.

Jacek Borowski, 51, from Poland lost control of his HGV heading down the hill.

His vehicle blocked the road completely for most of the day, causing significant disruption on the main route between Harrogate and Skipton.

Nobody else was involved or injured.

Blubberhouses collision driver banned April 2023

The lorry blocked the road for most of the day.

North Yorkshire Police said in a statement today Borowski had been banned within 24 hours of the incident. It added:

“Officers breathalysed the driver who blew 92 micrograms of alcohol in 100 milligrams of breath – almost three times the legal limit.

“He was remanded into custody immediately and put before York Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 19 April where he pleaded guilty to driving over the prescribed limit and was disqualified from driving for 23 months.”

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Anger management order for Knaresborough man who assaulted taxi driver

A former member of the armed services has been handed a community order for assaulting a taxi driver near Knaresborough.

Cameron Michael Dumsday, of Hawthorn Avenue in the town, pleaded guilty to common assault at Harrogate Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

The court heard he had taken a taxi from outside McDonald’s in Harrogate, along with another man, on Thursday, March 23.

During the journey to Knaresborough, the other passenger began to challenge the way the taxi was being driven, alleging the driver was speeding and cutting across junctions.

When the driver pulled over into a lay-by, the court heard Dumsday, 26, was trying to calm the situation down, but the other passenger called the police.

Dumsday then lost his temper and began making threats towards the driver, who had locked himself in the car. Prosecuting, Alison Whiteley said:

“He was telling the police that if they didn’t get there very soon, he would assault the taxi driver. He said, ‘I’ve been done for assault before and I don’t mind being done again’.”

The driver then decided to try to run away, and the defendant chased him across a busy road three times before police arrived.

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Defending, Andrew Tinning said Dumsday had drunk six or seven pints in Harrogate, but it had been an untroubled evening until they became concerned about the way the taxi was being driven on the way home.

Dumsday acknowledged he should not have lost his temper in the way he did, said Mr Tinning, adding:

“Fortunately, he doesn’t touch [the taxi driver]. He is here for assault on the basis the taxi driver feared he was going to use violence against him.”

The court heard Dumsday, who had served four years in the army and now worked as a lorry driver, had “a short fuse” and could lose his temper when he felt he needed to defend those around him. He had two previous convictions for assaulting police officers in 2018, for which he received fines.

Magistrates imposed a 12-month community order with the requirement to undertake 20 days on a programme to help him manage his emotions.

He was fined £710 and ordered to pay a surcharge of £114, costs of £85, and compensation of £6.80 for the taxi fare and £100 for the distress caused to the taxi driver.

Knaresborough couple deliver Christmas toys for children in Ukraine

Children across Ukraine will have presents to open this Christmas thanks to the hard work of a Knaresborough couple.

Retired lorry driver Bob Frendt, who has taken five truckloads of aid to the country since Russia invaded in February, decided in the summer to collect gifts to deliver in time for Christmas.

After appealing for help through the Stray Ferret, he received numerous donations — including a generous £30,000 of toys from one anonymous benefactor. He even had to attach a trailer to his lorry to enable him to take the medical supplies he had been given by Medequip and Andway.

Mr Frendt’s wife Maureen travelled with him this time and the couple set off on Thursday, November 3.

However, their plans to hand everything over at the Polish border, as he has done on most of his previous trips, went awry. Mr Frendt said:

“I could write a 13-part series about this trip. If it could go wrong, it did.

“We actually had to go into Ukraine. We got a message on the Friday night that the guys couldn’t get out of Ukraine because there was an embargo on civilians aged 16 to 70 leaving.

“We were 30 miles from the border and it’s a case of, what do you do? I wasn’t going to turn round and bring it all back.

“Maureen wasn’t too happy about it, but it is reasonably safe to cross the border there, so that’s what we did.”

Travelling into Ukraine for only the second time allowed him to see where the medical donations would be used, in the hospital in the city of Volodymir-Volynskyi, just over the border.

The couple were also delighted to hand over the 5,000 toys ready to be distributed to children around the country, including in Kyiv, Lviv and Kherson.

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Mr Frendt was also able to present a painting of Knaresborough to a journalist he met during his last visit, who wrote about his efforts in the local paper. He also met one of the ‘activists’ fighting the Russians, Constantine, who expressed his gratitude for all the couple’s efforts. Mr Frendt said:

“Constantine said to us, ‘when this is over, you and your wife must come back as our guests and stay for a week and we’ll show you the lakes’.

“He said if we come back, they’ll make me president of Volodymir-Volynskyi and Maureen would be first lady!”

Returning to Poland, the couple met friends who put them up in a hotel for the night and took them out for dinner to thank them for what they had done.

Bob and Maureen FrendtBob and Maureen Frendt

They made it back to Knaresborough at the weekend and Mr Frendt is already planning his next trip – though not until the spring, when the weather improves and he has had a break over the winter.

He hopes to set up a family disco fundraiser to help him buy more medical equipment, alongside the donations of kit he regularly receives from companies like Andway and Medequip. He hopes to put on a raffle and it appealing for donations of prizes from local businesses.

He wants to take out defibrillators, hospital armchairs, ultrasound machines and surgical equipment, as well as the tools to maintain them. To do that, he needs more donations from the public – everything from cash to raffle prizes to tools.

He said:

“It feels like this trip was years of planning. I haven’t got an organisation behind me – all there is is me and Maureen and that’s it.

“It’s hard graft, going round and asking people if they can help. But I’ve just got to do what I can.

“The people over there have no food. They’re going to the river and filling up cans for water. The hospitals are desperate.

“It’s so difficult for us to appreciate and understand what having nothing really is.”

To support Mr Frendt’s efforts for Ukraine, or to make a donation, click here to email him.