A Moy man who was over twice the legal limit flipped his car on its roof on the morning of New Year’s Day, a court has heard.
Arnas Vaicekauskas (20), of Hillview Place, appeared before Armagh Magistrates’ Court, sitting at Newry Courthouse on Tuesday, charged with driving with excess alcohol in blood and driving without due care and attention.
At the outset of the hearing, the charges were read to him and he was asked if he understood, after which a Police Constable confirmed they could connect him to the charges.
The Prosecution stated they were in a position to accept a plea, with the defendant answering guilty to the charges.
The court was then told that on January 1 this year at around 5am, police received a report of a vehicle on its roof in the area of the Moy Road in Armagh.
On arrival they spoke to Vaicekauskas, the driver of the vehicle, who said: “I was drinking since it was New Year’s and I crashed the car as I was driving and drinking.”
The Citroen vehicle was noted to have extensive damage.
While police were speaking to him, they noted a strong smell of alcohol from his breath.
Vaicekauskas said he was the only person in the vehicle and admitted to being the driver. However, he said he could not remember what happened but believed he may have passed out due to the alcohol consumed.
A preliminary breath test (PBT) resulted in a fail and the defendant was arrested and taken to Craigavon Area Hospital.
A blood sample was taken five hours after the accident which provided a reading of 75 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres in blood.
Due to the delay a re-calculation was requested, which provided police with an approximate reading of 172 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood if the sample had been taken at the time of arrest.
The legal limit in Northern Ireland is 80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.
At interview, the defendant said there was a vehicle shining its headlights towards him, “I tried to move to the side because it was blinding me. Not sure if I grabbed the side or hit something but I lost control and the next thing I know I was upside down.”
He did not remember anything else leading to the collision.
District Judge Anne Marshall commented: “The back calculation takes the reading to almost twice the legal limit and I think you’ve accepted you were quite drunk and we’ve a car that ended up on its roof.”
Across both charges, Judge Marshall imposed a total fine of £315 and a driving disqualification of 15 months.
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