Bannan: ‘If I killed someone I wouldn’t want to live’

Scotland football star Barry Bannan has admitted there would have been “no point in me living” had his drink-fuelled motorway crash resulted in any loss of life.

The Aston Villa midfielder had an accident in his Range Rover Sport on the M1 on 23 October while over the legal drink-drive limit. He fled the scene, and was arrested in a taxi office.

Yesterday, he admitted that he was lucky to be alive after the incident.

Bannan, 21, who only held a provisional licence, was fined £4,500 and banned from driving for 18 months.

The player, who has been capped nine times by Scotland, was found to have almost twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

His trial was told that he had been driving for around an hour before the crash, after a night out with friends.

Yesterday, Bannan was unveiled as the public face of an anti-drink driving campaign in the West Midlands.

He believes he has had a lucky escape. He said: “It still goes through my head now, it was a huge mistake and I regret everything I’ve done. It will never happen again.

“As much as I regret it, I’m so lucky to be still here today.

“If I hit another car and killed someone else, then there’s no point in me living, really, after the things that would be going through my head.

“I’m lucky to be where I am today.”

Bannan, who is to feature in the West Midlands Police’s Christmas Don’t Drink and Drive Campaign, said he will not be tempted to repeat his mistakes during the festive season.

“It’ll still be with me for the rest of my life, in the back of my head,” he said.

Alex McLeish, Bannan’s manager at Aston Villa, has backed the player to put the incident behind him and continue his football career.

McLeish said: “He’s got to now totally concentrate and be totally professional, and try to make himself the best he can possibly be.”

Bannan said last month that he had never driven under the influence of alcohol before the incident and “never would again”.