A biker who fell off his motorcycle gave a roadside breath test that was more than three times over the legal limit, Bath magistrates heard.
Prosecutor Giles Tippett told Bath Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 15th April that police had been called by the ambulance service to Bath Road at Hinton Charterhouse late at night on 20th March.
Darryl Head, who had sustained injuries from falling off the bike, was asked by officers to give a sample of breath at the roadside. It revealed 127 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
After giving the positive breath test, 36-year-old Head was taken to hospital with a broken collar bone.
It was not until more than eight hours later that he provided an evidential breath sample at Keynsham Police Centre. The test at 8.25am on 21st March revealed he had 54 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – still over the legal limit of 35.
Duty solicitor Ruth Tily told the court that Head had come off his bike due to stones on the road. She said he had been fully cooperative with police and paramedics.
She said he had consumed a lot of alcohol the night before and had not appreciated he would still be over the limit.
She said Head, who has no previous convictions, works as a chef but is currently off work due to his injury and is receiving statutory sick pay.
Magistrates told Head, of Suffolk Road in Westbury, that he’d had a lot of alcohol in his system when tested at the roadside.
They disqualified him from driving for 16 months but agreed he could complete a drink-driver rehabilitation course which will reduce his sentence by 25%.
They fined him £110 and ordered him to pay prosecution costs of £85 and a court surcharge of £44.
