A drink driver who got behind the wheel of his car after being turned away from a pub for being too intoxicated, causing two crashes — one of which left a cyclist in intensive care for three weeks — has been jailed for more than four years.

Andrew Peter Burns' Christmas night out offences saw him sentenced to 50 months in prison at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday, Wales Online (link is external) reports, after the drink driver had pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, dangerous driving, driving without due care and attention, failing to stop, and failing to report an accident.

Burns had been on a work night out on 6 December 2021, part of his colleagues' pre-Christmas celebrations, and visited multiple pubs and a Miller & Carter restaurant where he ate a meal and drank "five or six" alcoholic drinks.

The court was shown CCTV footage of Burns leaving a pub drunk and then being refused entry when he tried to go back to the Borough Arms as he was too intoxicated.

Burns then got into his Audi A3 and caused two crashes to the east of the city centre, the first on City Road and a second on Metal Street nearby just before 9pm. In the first, he crashed into the back of another vehicle, while in the second he hit a delivery cyclist working in the city.

The drink driver failed to stop at the scene of both incidents, with the cyclist taken to hospital with serious head and leg injuries which required three weeks of treatment in intensive care.

Having been arrested the following day, Burns pleaded guilty to the aforementioned charges and was in court on Monday for sentencing, during which his barrister said the 47-year-old had panicked and fled the scene of the crashes.

"The defendant is very sorry for what has happened and wishes that he could turn back the clock," he said.

Burns was sentenced to 50 months in prison by judge Jeremy Jenkins and was told he would serve half in custody and the remainder on licence. The drink driver was also banned from driving for four years and one month. He will have to pass an extended retest to resume driving at the end of the ban.

https://road.cc/content/news/drink-driver-who-left-cyclist-intensive-care-jailed-302753

On 25/07/2023 11:25 am, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:
> A drink driver who got behind the wheel of his car after being turned away from a pub for being too intoxicated, causing two crashes — one of which left a cyclist in intensive care for three weeks — has been jailed for more than four years.
>
> Andrew Peter Burns' Christmas night out offences saw him sentenced to 50 months in prison at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday, Wales Online (link is external) reports, after the drink driver had pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, dangerous driving, driving without due care and attention, failing to stop, and failing to report an accident.
>
> Burns had been on a work night out on 6 December 2021, part of his colleagues' pre-Christmas celebrations, and visited multiple pubs and a Miller & Carter restaurant where he ate a meal and drank "five or six" alcoholic drinks.
>
> The court was shown CCTV footage of Burns leaving a pub drunk and then being refused entry when he tried to go back to the Borough Arms as he was too intoxicated.
>
> Burns then got into his Audi A3 and caused two crashes to the east of the city centre, the first on City Road and a second on Metal Street nearby just before 9pm. In the first, he crashed into the back of another vehicle, while in the second he hit a delivery cyclist working in the city.
>
> The drink driver failed to stop at the scene of both incidents, with the cyclist taken to hospital with serious head and leg injuries which required three weeks of treatment in intensive care.
>
> Having been arrested the following day, Burns pleaded guilty to the aforementioned charges and was in court on Monday for sentencing, during which his barrister said the 47-year-old had panicked and fled the scene of the crashes.
>
> "The defendant is very sorry for what has happened and wishes that he could turn back the clock," he said.
>
> Burns was sentenced to 50 months in prison by judge Jeremy Jenkins and was told he would serve half in custody and the remainder on licence. The drink driver was also banned from driving for four years and one month. He will have to pass an extended retest to resume driving at the end of the ban.
>
> https://road.cc/content/news/drink-driver-who-left-cyclist-intensive-care-jailed-302753

Sounds a reasonable outcome.

He could have hit anyone, of course, perhaps even a family coming from
the opposite direction. It could, in fact, have been any of us.

>He will have to pass an extended retest to resume driving at the end of the ban.

Or, he will just drive around without a licence and gamble that he doesn't get caught.

Remember: this is someone who "got behind the wheel of his car after being turned away from a pub for being too intoxicated" so I'm not entirely convinced that he could give two hoots about actually having a valid driving licence or insurance.

=====================
He must have out of his head to get refused by a pub, never mind attempting to drive a car.

swldx...@gmail.com <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:

[…]

> Burns then got into his Audi A3 and caused two crashes to the east of the city centre…

This is exactly the same thing that a cyclist from Palo Alto was
complaining about in an almost emotional posting put up on the group
yesterday.

Was there any reason at all to mention the make and model of the motor
vehicle?

[…]

> https://road.cc/content/news/drink-driver-who-left-cyclist-intensive-care-jailed-302753

PS: how does a driver and a cyclist have an accident, with the latter
‘left’ in intensive care? He wasn’t in a hospital ward when the crash
happened.

--
Spike

On 25/07/2023 02:57 pm, Spike wrote:

> swldx...@gmail.com <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> […]
>
>> Burns then got into his Audi A3 and caused two crashes to the east of the city centre…
>
> This is exactly the same thing that a cyclist from Palo Alto was
> complaining about in an almost emotional posting put up on the group
> yesterday.
>
> Was there any reason at all to mention the make and model of the motor
> vehicle?

It's only surprising that they didn't say it was a BMW or a Bentley.
After all, lies are hardly strangers to the pages of road.cc.
>
> […]
>
>> https://road.cc/content/news/drink-driver-who-left-cyclist-intensive-care-jailed-302753
>
> PS: how does a driver and a cyclist have an accident, with the latter
> ‘left’ in intensive care? He wasn’t in a hospital ward when the crash
> happened.

Don't expect correct use of the language from road.cc.

It is written, bought and read by (at best) semi-literates.

andystow replied to brooksby | 1113 posts | 1 hour ago
3 likes
I'll just make my usual comment about the farce that is an "extended retest." It's basically a test of whether he can show up sober for a one hour event on a single day. What a high bar.

The only way an extended retest makes sense as a tool is if there's an actual physical/mental/coordination skills problem that someone has overcome with additional training and practice.