Video shows sparks flying after drink driver flips car on a motorway
A man was covered in blood after his car flipped and was sent skidding across a motorway when a drink driver crashed into it.
Scraping can be heard in dashcam footage of the incident as the car skids along the road, with smoke and orange sparks pouring from the vehicle.
In the footage, an HGV driver shouts, ‘Oh my god. Jesus Christ. That car’s on its roof in front of me’.
Witnesses saw Nilen Chauhan, 27, weaving between lanes and cutting other vehicles up while driving a Volkswagen Polo at speeds ‘well over 100mph’ for about 10 miles before crashing into the back of a Mitsubishi L200, Cambridgeshire Police said.
A static camera showed Chauhan’s vehicle travelling at speed down the A14 at Bar Hill, Cambridgeshire at 6.53am on September 14 last year.
The Mitsubishi then slammed into the central reservation with a bright flash of light soon after the collision.
Its driver’s head was covered in blood, and he ‘suffered many physical and mental injuries’.
But he survived the crash and was able to walk away.
Several empty beer bottles and a bottle of whisky were found inside Chauhan’s car.
Chauhan recorded 104 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath – over the legal limit of 35 micrograms of alcohol – when he was breath tested at the roadside.
PC Ben Patten said: ‘This was not a momentary lapse in concentration or an honest mistake, it was a prolonged period of driving at excessive speed, tailgating and undertaking vehicles, all while well over the drink-drive limit.
‘The victim who was hit by Chauhan suffered many physical and mental injuries and it is miraculous neither he or another innocent member of the public going about their daily business was not more seriously injured or worse.’
Chauhan admitted drink driving and driving a vehicle dangerously at Cambridge Crown Court.
The defendant, Westrow Gardens, Ilford, east London, was sentenced at the same court on February 26 to a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
He was also given a three-year driving ban and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work, and must take an extended driving test when the ban is lifted.
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