Drink driver banned after smash on motorway (From Swindon Advertiser)

Drink driver banned after smash on motorway

5:12pm Sunday 15th April 2007 in

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A DRINK driver who fell asleep on the M4 has been banned for more than two years.

Latvian Erik Krievanns was handed a 26-month ban and a one-year community order at Swindon Magistrates' Court on Friday.

The 42-year-old lorry driver was more than two and a half times the legal limit when he crashed his car on the eastbound carriageway at Swindon.

Krievanns pleaded guilty last Monday to the offence but said he had no memory of how he came to be in his car.

He had come to Swindon from his home in Kent on Saturday, April 7 this year for a business meeting.

At 11.30am, police were called to an accident on the M4.

The front of his car was severely damaged and the back of another car was also damaged.

Police arrested him and a breath test showed he had 94 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

Defending, Martin Guyll-Wiggins said: "The last thing he remembers was he was going to go to his car and sleep it off.

"He got cold so he started the engine and somehow automatically he started to drive home.

"When he first had the accident he thought he was having a bad dream.

"The horror, though, very quickly dawned on him.

"He thinks he was extremely fortunate that no one was injured."

Krievanns was also driving without valid insurance.

Mr Guyll-Wiggins said: "The car was borrowed from a friend, the insurance policy covered the vehicle but did not cover him.

"This was an oversight and a genuine mistake."

Mr Guyll-Wiggins said Krievanns had been living in Britain since 2004 and was sending money back to his wife and three children in Latvia.

Chairman of the bench Roy Jarvis said: "For the drink driving offence we are going to make a community order for a period of 12 months.

"There is a condition of unpaid work which you must undertake for 100 hours.

"You will also be disqualified for 26 months."

Krievanns has the option of reducing his ban by six months if he takes a drink driving rehabilitation course.

For the offence of having no insurance Krievanns was fined £100, his licence was endorsed and he was ordered to pay £60 costs.