A trucker who downed half a litre of vodka while he watched his 44-tonne lorry being loaded – then flipped the massive trailer on a busy dual carriageway during rush hour – was jailed for a year today.
Darren Moorhouse drank three quarters of a bottle of spirit as he awaited a massive load being put on his truck in Peterhead.
He managed to negotiate 100 miles of the A90 road south as he headed to England before causing a “dramatic” smash on the Kingsway in Dundee.
Moorhouse drove his articulated truck, carrying 23 tonnes of peat briquettes, too quickly as he went round the Myrekirk roundabout on the outskirts of the city.
The offside wheels of the lorry left the road – and as Moorhouse tried to correct it as he came off the roundabout the trailer became detached from the tractor unit before falling on to the carriageway and central reservation.
Police took Moorhouse to Dundee’s police HQ and found he was three times the drink drive limit.
Fiscal depute Susan Ruta told Dundee Sheriff Court that the trucker had stopped at Ellon, Aberdeenshire, to drop off a load and bought the bottle of vodka on his way to Peterhead from there.
He then drank three-quarters of it as he waited for the freight to be loaded into the trailer before setting off bound for England.
Miraculously it did not hit any other vehicles despite the accident happening at around 5pm in rush hour traffic.
The court heard he had been suspended from driving after the incident, and had lost his job as a result.
Moorhouse, 40, of Burnley Road, Burnley, admitted driving the HGV with 111 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 milliltires of breath. The limit is 35.
He also admitted driving dangerously by attempting to negotiate the roundabout at excessive speed and losing control of the vehicle. He admitted causing the trailer to topple over, detach from the tractor unit and fall on to the off side lane of the dual carriageway where it collided with a safety barrier.
Defence solicitor Mike Ferrie said: “He has no previous convictions. He can’t really explain why this incident occurred.”
Sheriff Richard McFarlane jailed Moorhouse for a year and banned him from driving for three years.
He said: “I find it incomprehensible that you had committed the first offence of driving with a significant amount of alcohol in your breath, which then led to the dangerous driving.”