A speeding drug-driver with no front tyres smashed into a barrier near Aberdeen International Airport while so intoxicated he couldn’t remember getting into the car.
Ryan Worsley sent sparks flying as he sped along a 20mph road near the airport before the crash brought his dangerous actions to a sudden halt.
The 34-year-old father was found by police still in the driver’s seat with the engine running – and no idea how he got there.
Fiscal depute Victoria Kerr told Aberdeen Sheriff Court police officers on patrol were flagged down by a taxi driver around 11.45pm on March 28 last year.
‘I can’t remember getting in the car’
The taxi driver told them a car had crashed on Dyce Drive at the junction with the A96.
The officers noted damage to the front of the car, which had collided with a crash barrier, and that the front tyres were missing.
Due to the circumstances and Worsley’s “actions and demeanour”, he was detained for a search, during which he “struggled to maintain his balance”.
Two tablets of etizolam, a class C drug, were found in his trouser pocket.
A breath test proved negative for alcohol, but a drug wipe was positive for a metabolite of cocaine and Worsley was arrested.
Ms Kerr said: “CCTV was examined and the car could be seen to be driving at speed and braking harshly prior to the collision.”
‘I was in with the wrong crowd’
She added the front wheels were missing their tyres even at this point, with sparks visibly flying from the alloys scraping against the road surface.
Worsley, of Menzies Road, Aberdeen, pled guilty to dangerous driving and driving with 92 microgrammes of benzoylecgonine, the metabolite of cocaine, per litre of blood.
The legal limit is 50 microgrammes.
He also admitted possession of etizolam.
Appearing without a solicitor, Worsley told the court he had been in a “bad place” and had been having issues seeing his son.
He went on: “I was in with the wrong crowd.”
Asked about the drugs, Worsley said: “Etizolam is what I believed I was taking.
“I can’t remember being in the house or getting in the car.
“I remember asking for help. I can’t remember going on the roundabout or crashing into the barrier.”
Worsley said he had now been off drugs and alcohol for five months.
He added: “I’m feeling better for it and feel confident I won’t go back to it.”
Sheriff Ian Wallace deferred sentence on Worsley for background reports and disqualified him from driving in the interim.
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