Driver downed vodka to fight bridge phobia

A DELIVERY driver drank enough vodka to be four times over the limit for "Dutch courage" because he was scared of the Forth Road Bridge, a court heard.

Leon Wasilewski, 61, claimed he had been drinking heavily because he was afraid of bridges and had been told to cross the Forth to carry out his next delivery on his way to Harrogate.

He parked his van in a stranger's driveway to sleep but when he was woken up and quizzed, he reversed at speed and crashed into a tree.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis, at Perth Sheriff Court, yesterday banned Wasilewski from driving for 30 months and ordered him to carry out 80 hours' community service. Solicitor Linda Clark, defending, said he lost his job as a result.

Several years earlier, Wasilewski, from Daventry, had been driving across the Severn Bridge in a lorry when high winds almost tipped his vehicle over.

Since then he has planned his routes to avoid crossing over bridges, but a change to his route meant he had to cross the Forth.

He admitted driving while almost four times over the legal alcohol limit at The Nurseries, Balado, on 8 October last year.