The motorist’s vehicle was also confiscated, his license canceled and he is prohibited from returning to it for a period of three years.
A 31-year-old motorist who fled after hitting a peloton of young cyclists in Côtes-d’Armor at the end of January, injuring eight of them while drunk, was sentenced to three years in prison on Monday. including ten months suspended.
The court of Saint-Brieuc, which followed most of the requisitions of the public prosecutor, also revoked the reprieve from which the defendant benefited for a previous sentence of six months in prison.
The driver, already convicted four times for drunken driving, will therefore have to serve a total of 32 months in prison and has an obligation to treat himself and compensate his victims.
His vehicle was confiscated, his license canceled and he is prohibited from returning to it for a period of three years.
Eight injured, three seriously
This father of two was traveling on a secondary road in a German brand coupe when he crossed paths with 13 young cyclists from a bike club in Plouagat, near Guingamp.
He had hit the peloton from behind, injuring eight young people in the accident, three of them seriously.
“We were on a straight line, I saw a white car coming in front and suddenly it veered to the left,” said one of the young victims present at the hearing on Monday. “She didn’t stop after hitting us.”
The gendarmes had found the driver asleep in his car, parked in a road 3 km from the scene of the accident. The driver initially refused to submit to a blood alcohol test.
“A moment of bewilderment”
The accident happened around 3 p.m. The next morning, he still had a rate of 0.15 mg of alcohol per liter of exhaled air.
The gendarmes estimated that his rate must have been around 2.7 g per liter of blood at the time of the events. The legal limit is set at 0.5 g/l of blood (i.e. 0.25 mg of alcohol per liter of exhaled air).
“I had a moment of bewilderment but at no time did I want to hit them,” defended the defendant. He said he drank “three beers in the morning” and “slept late the day before” the accident. “I’ve been drinking for 4 years, every other weekend, when I’m not babysitting,” he said.
