Drunk van driver forced police to swerve off road
A DRUNK teenager caused a police vehicle to swerve on to an embankment to avoid a head- on smash – then led officers on a car chase as he raced home to see his ill mother.
Martin Gilhaney drove so erratically in his work van while more than four times t he drink l i mit t hat he vomited over himself, a court heard.
The 18-year-old got behind the wheel after being told his mother, who had suffered a heart attack two months earlier, had collapsed.
Details of the incident emerged when Gilhaney appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court last week to be sentenced over his drunken antics on the A737 in Renfrewshire on November 20.
Procurator fiscal depute Margaret McCallum said a white Peugeot van had pulled out of slow-moving eastbound traffic ‘ straight into the path’ of a marked police vehicle travelling westbound with lights and siren on to a road accident.
She added: ‘The officer driving the police vehicle slammed on his brakes and took evasive action to avoid a head- on collision.’
Gilhaney then drove off, swerving across the carriageway and braking sharply as he tried to get back on the correct side of the road, the court heard.
Police in a vehicle further along the road saw what was happening and activated their own lights and sirens, before parking their vehicle across the road to try and force him to stop. But as he reached their car, he drove up on to a grass verge to get past it.
The officers then gave chase until Gilhaney eventually stopped the van.
After being arrested, he was found to have 91 microgrammes (mcg) of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 22mcg.
When in the dock in Novem-
‘Straight into their path’
ber, he admitted dangerous driving and drink-driving and sentence was deferred so he could be assessed by social workers.
last week, Gilhaney was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work, banned from driving for three years and ordered to si t t he extended driving test before getting behind the wheel again.
Sheriff Robert fife said that Gilhaney, from Dumbarton, had only avoided being locked up because he had no previous convictions.
He also told him that his ban would be reduced by 25 per cent if he completes a drink- driver rehabilitation course and said he must return to court in March for a review of his progress.