Kentish Express Ashford & District
Death crash drink-driver jailed
A driver under the influence of drink and drugs who killed a young woman travelling in a convertible car with three friends has been jailed for six years.
Ion Rusu had been drinking whiskey and smoking cannabis on a beach in Folkestone before he was spotted driving erratically on a motorway, zig-zagging across all three lanes.
The 25-year-old Romanian’s Peugeot 206 hit Mohini Arora’s hired BMW 220D, leaving it upside down on the hard shoulder. Miss Arora, also 25, died at the scene from head and neck injuries.
A judge told Rusu, who was almost three times the legal alcohol driving limit: “It is clear the accident was caused by your intoxication through drink and drugs. It had catastrophic results.”
Maidstone Crown Court heard he callously drove off after the tragedy which happened at about 9.50pm on Sunday, November 13, last year, on the M20 just after junction 11a for Folkestone.
Rusu, of College Avenue, Gillingham, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and drinkdriving. He was disqualified for eight years.
Prosecutor Catherine Donnelly said the warehouse worker had about an hour earlier been seen by a couple in a car on the wrong side of the road near Maidstone Services on the M20, heading coastbound. They were so con- cerned his driving was dangerous they contacted the police.
After the Peugeot later hit the BMW, both cars left the carriageway. The BMW mounted the crash barrier and hit an electricity sub-station. It came to rest upside down on the hard shoulder of the motorway. Rusu and his passenger stopped and went towards the BMW.
But Rusu then returned to his car, leaving his passenger behind, and drove off. He stopped about a mile away and was arrested while walking up a slip road at junction 11.
When interviewed, he claimed he was not aware of any collision and said he stopped because his friend told him a car had overturned. He also falsely claimed his car had a defect in the steering.
Miss Arora, originally from India, studied at Regent’s University London and was working for marketing firm AJG Direct in the capital. Her brother and a friend travelled from India for the sentencing hearing on Friday.