Published date: 02 November 2016 |
A LONG-DISTANCE trucker who had been drinking drove his articulated lorry towards a McDonald’s Drive Thru.
Staff and customers at the restaurant in Chirk were terrified to see the vehicle enter the car park.
It headed towards the Drive Thru area but crashed into a lamp-post and damaged a nearby Audi car.
Grzegorz Lipinski then reversed, but crashed into other street furniture in the car park.
Drive Grzegorz Lipinski and the McDonald's restaurant in Chirk
Lipinski, 44, a father-of-three from Miastko in Poland, who had been making a delivery to the nearby Kronospan wood chip factory, admitted drink-driving and was jailed for 28 days and banned from driving for two years.
He was said to have little recollection of the incident.
District Judge Gwyn Jones, sitting at Flintshire Magistrates Court at Mold yesterday, saidLipinski was in charge of a heavy goods vehicle and trailer when he had 65 microgrammes of alcohol in his breath, compared to the legal limit of 35.
“You attempted to manoeuvre a hefty vehicle through the Drive Thru area of McDonald’s,” said the judge.
“Even large cars sometimes have difficulties. It is clear that they are not designed for large vehicles.
“However, under the influence of drink, you drove that vehicle with little recollection – driving in a manner which I am satisfied was dangerous.
“You are a professional driver in charge of a very big HGV and you attempted to manoeuvre your vehicle in circumstances of extreme danger.”
The judge said no doubt both members of staff and members of the public eating there would have been terrified at the sight of a very large vehicle travelling towards them.
“The Drive-Thru section is not designed for such vehicles,” he said.
Prosecutor Justin Espie said at 11pm on Saturday that Lipinski was making a delivery to Kronospan but for some reason decided to drive into McDonald’s car park at Chirk and headed towards the Drive Thru area.
“He negotiated a right hand bend in the car park. The staff saw the trailer collide with a lamp-post and that fell onto the Audi.
“The defendant then reversed the vehicle but collided with street furniture in the car park.”
Police officers attended and Lipinski said: “I have not had a drink since yesterday evening,” but he gave a positive test and was arrested. He provided a 65 microgrammes reading in the police station.
Interviewed, he said he could not recollect driving the vehicle. He admitted he had been drinking that afternoon, at about 1pm or 2pm and had fallen asleep. Lipinski accepted he must have been responsible for the collision but he could not remember doing it. “I regret what happened,” he said.
Simon Simmons, defending, said it was an unusual case. “I can see eyebrows raised,” he said. Mr Simmons said the instructions from his client were “quite hazy”, to say the least.
Lipinski, who followed the hearing with the aid of a Polish interpretor, accepted culpability. Mr Simmons said it was one of those offences where he had expected the alcohol reading to be higher in view of the manner of driving described.
“He says he would never normally drive that way and wishes to apologise to the court,” he said.
http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/168615/chaos-at-mcdonald-s-in-chirk-as-drink-drive-trucker-tries-to-use-drive-thru.aspx
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