Driver who died in crash ‘had an open vodka bottle’

A 35-YEAR-OLD drunk driver who died in a road collision had an open bottle of vodka in the car at the time, an inquest has heard.

Valdis Gabravnovs was driving on the wrong side of the road when he struck an oncoming car on the Skerries Road in Rush, Co. Dublin, on February 1, 2017.

Just moments earlier, he had crashed into a road sign which then dragged along the bottom of his car, Dublin Coroner’s Court heard.

An autopsy revealed Mr Gabravnovs was severely intoxicated when he crashed his Volkswagen Passat at 11.25pm. The inquest heard the Latvian father of two worked long hours but had trouble sleeping at night. His partner said he was in a lot of pain and was taking painkillers around the time of his death.

Three occupants of the other car, an Audi A3, sustained serious injuries. One suffered a broken neck.

Minutes earlier, Mr Gabravnovs’s car had collided with a lamppost on Palmer Road in Rush. Witness Paul Callan saw the driver get out of his car and try to remove a street sign that had become lodged underneath it. He then drove off with the sign trapped under his car.

The court heard Mr Gabravnovs was not wearing his seatbelt and that there was an open bottle of vodka in a compartment in the door. Forensic collision investigator Garda Damien Farrell told the court the car was severely damaged in the first collision with the lamppost.

‘He then turned left onto Skerries Road and the collision occurred on the southbound lane, indicating Mr Gabranovs was driving on the wrong side of the road,’ Garda Farrell said.

Mr Gabravnovs was pronounced dead at the scene. A post mortem gave the cause of death as cardiac arrhythmia due to traumatic laceration of the right heart ventricle with severe alcohol intoxication as a contributory factor.

‘This was an unsurvivable injury,’ coroner Dr Myra Cullinane said. The jury returned an open verdict.