A 28-year-old man has been charged with dangerous driving under the influence of drugs after a road crash which left his passenger with serious injuries.

Jay Lubach was the driver of a black Ford Focus which was travelling along the B1023 Tollesbury Road, in Tollesbury, on July 6 last year.

At about 11.30pm, he lost control of the car, which left the road, rolled and came to rest in a field.

The passenger, a 23-year-old woman, was taken to Colchester Hospital and was later transferred to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridgeshire with a serious head injury.

The woman, from Wickford, was later released from hospital, but is still receiving treatment for head and spine injuries at a specialist hospital in Stoke Mandeville.

Lubach, of Cross Green, Basildon, has been charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving whilst unfit through drugs.

He has been bailed to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on January 22.