Year ban for drink-driver after smash

Published on 26/09/2012 12:00

A DRIVER who wrote off a car and demolished a lamppost was more than twice the drink-drive limit.

Livingston Sheriff Court heard that Janusz Garncarz went to bed after a lunchtime drinking session, but later went out.

He claimed he was “dazzled” by the lights of an oncoming car as he veered across the road and slammed into the other vehicle. He then mounted the kerb and ripped a large lamppost out of the ground, “completely destroying” it. Although the occupants of the other car were only slightly injured, their car was a write-off.

Garncarz, of Armadale, West Lothian, admitted driving at 40mph in a 30mph limit. The 49-year-old general operator pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention with 78mg of alcohol per 35ml of breath on August 25.

Sheriff Donald Muirhead fined Garncarz £670 and banned him from driving for a year.

He said: “The public safety requires that you be disqualified from driving. I hope that this will be enough to make sure that you are very careful about driving in the future.”