Drink-driver broke through police line after fatal collision
Dad-of-four went wrong way down bypass
ADRINK driver broke through a police cordon as officers investigated a fatal collision - before speeding the WRONG way down the Haslingden Bypass, a court heard.
Gareth Horan, of Bacup, was more than two- and- a- half times the legal limit when he ‘squeezed’ between a police car and barrier forcing an officer to ‘ jump out of the way’ to avoid a collision, a court heard.
Prosecutor Catherine Allan told Burnley Magistrates Court how the A56 near Haslingden had been closed off southbound due to a fatal road traffic collision shortly before midnight on September 9. Police officers had placed 20 cones, three signs and four high visibility flashing lights over 300 yards near to Tesco. The court heard how an officer spotted Horan in a Ford Fiesta driving north on the southbound carriageway which then went between a police car and a barrier.
ADRINK driver broke through a police cordon as officers investigated a fatal collision before speeding the WRONG way down the Haslingden Bypass, a court heard.
Gareth Horan was more than two- and- ahalf times the legal drink driving limit when he ‘squeezed’ between a police car and barrier forcing an officer to ‘ jump out of the way’ to avoid a collision.
The dad- of- four then swerved to avoid a head- on collision with another police car and several other oncoming vehicles, including a HGV, before driving the wrong way round the Rising Bridge roundabout.
Prosecutor Catherine Allan told Burnley Magistrates Court how the A56 near Haslingden had been closed off southbound due to a fatal road traffic collision shortly before midnight on September 9.
Police officers had placed 20 cones, three signs and four high visi- bility flashing lights over 300 yards near to Tesco.
The court heard how an officer spotted Horan in a Ford Fiesta driving north on the southbound carriageway which then ‘squeezed’ between a police car and a barrier.
A statement from another officer read out at court said Horan, who had not been involved in the fatal collision, drove towards him as he was stood in a ‘ live lane’ and caused him to ‘ jump out of the way to avoid being hit’.
The officer shouted at Horan to stop but he accelerated away forcing another oncoming vehicle to take evasive action.
In the statement, he said: “It was extremely dangerous and only the result of attention paid and quick reactions of oncoming motorists that we didn’t have to investigate a second fatality on the road that evening.”
Miss Allan told the court that Horan, 47, almost had a head- on collision with a marked police vehicle and ‘narrowly missed it by swerving towards the central reservation’.
Horan then nearly struck another police officer putting out more cones and when he was arrested his speech was slurred and he was unsteady on his feet.
He gave a breathalyser reading of 94mg in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
Miss Allan said it was a ‘prolonged piece of bad driving’ and showed a ‘deliberate disregard for the safety of others’.
Horan, of David Street, Bacup, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and drink- driving and will be sentenced at Burnley Crown Court on October 29.
l After the fatal collision, police confirmed that pedestrian Ausrine Micyte, a much- loved mother and grandmother from Blackburn, had died at the scene.