Monday 23 March 2015

Drink driver who cannot stand

Whoops! Yeh.. I don't think that you're going to test under the limit somehow!

This police footage shows how a man who crashed his car could not even stand when he was arrested.

Robert Hutchinson was spotted by a member of the public driving his Nissan Almera erratically on the A281 heading towards Horsham at 5.45pm on Friday 30 January.

As the witness phoned police to describe what he could see, Hutchinson veered off the road, overcorrected and crashed head on into a Ford Ka heading south on the road at Mannings Heath.

The Ford span around and the Nissan ended up in bushes.

The driver of the Ford, a 42-year-old woman from Plummers Plain, suffered slight injuries. Hutchinson was not injured.

When police arrived they found Hutchinson was still sitting behind the wheel.

CCTV footage recorded inside Worthing custody centre shows how he fell off a chair and into a wall while waiting to be breathalysed. To watch the footage visit https://youtu.be/6q4nCjPakyQ.

He was so drunk that an officer had to help him to his feet and hold him up to stop him falling down again. Hutchinson was found to have 169 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millitres of his breath - almost five times the legal limit of 35 microgrammes.

The 59-year-old told police he had been drinking for several hours at home that afternoon but had decided to go shopping for food and then crashed his car.

He had already served a ban for drink-driving after being convicted in 2009 and did not have a driving licence.

Hutchinson, of Fir Tree Close, Plummers Plain, pleaded guilty to drink-driving, driving without a licence and driving without insurance when he appeared at Crawley Magistrates' Court on 23 February.

He was banned from driving for five years, given an 18-week suspended prison sentence, told to do 300 hours of community service and ordered to pay £85 costs and an £80 victim surcharge.

Chief Inspector Phil Nicholas, from Surrey and Sussex roads policing unit, said: "The footage shows just how drunk Hutchinson was, yet he thought that it was acceptable for him to drive in that condition.

"It is vital that we get people who think that it's ok to drink and drive off the roads.

"We need the public's help to tell us whenever they see someone who could be drink-driving so that we can act before someone is seriously hurt or even killed."

People in Sussex can text officers on 65999 with the details of people they suspect of drink or drug driving or visit www.operationcrackdown.co.uk.

You can also contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

To keep up to date with officers looking for drink drivers, follow #opdragonfly on Twitter.

If you know someone is driving while over the limit or after taking drugs call 999.



www.alcohol-breathalysers.co.uk

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