Shropshire death crash driver had been drinking and was ‘showing off’
A driver was “substantially impaired” due to drink when he crashed his car in Shropshire, killing his female passenger, a court heard.
Mareks Skorobogatovs, 23, was attempting to impress his passenger with his driving, a court heard.
But his reckless driving, combined with the alcohol he had consumed, led to a tragedy of his own making.
The court heard Skorobogatovs had consumed a large amount of alcohol over a 24-hour period when he got behind the wheel of his Vauxhall Corsa in April this year.
He was said to have been trying to show off to his 26-year-old passenger, Dovile Piktuizyte, when the car left the road near Boningale, near Albrighton.
Lithuanian-born Miss Piktuizyte, who was the front-seat passenger, was killed when the car smashed into a bridge on the Holyhead Road.
Following the late night accident Skorobogatovs, of Telford, who only had a provisional licence and was not insured, refused to allow a specimen of his blood to be tested for the alcohol.
The defendant was said to have been drinking at a nightclub and later at a house party into the early hours of April 16 and had drunk more lager the following afternoon and had fallen asleep.
The car, which was travelling from the direction of Kingswood Common, came off the road.
The Latvian national, who suffered chest injuries in the accident, was jailed for six years for causing Miss Piktuizyte’s death.
Judge Jonathan Gosling said it was a “terrible tragedy” and told members of the victim’s family who attended Shrewsbury Crown Court that nothing he could say, or any punishment, could bring any comfort to her parents.
He said a blood test would have shown Skorobogatovs was “substantially impaired” from his drinking.
“You have listened with dignity to the horror of what happened to your daughter and no one can fully understand the loss and utter grief which, just five months on, is still raw and something from which you may never recover,” he said.
Skorobogatovs, of Bishopsdale, Brookside, had pleaded guilty to a charge of causing Miss Piktuizyte’s death by careless driving and failing to allow a blood specimen test and a charge of causing death by driving when unlicensed and uninsured. He was also given a six-year driving disqualification and will be banned for at least three years following his release from prison and must take an extended UK driving test.
The court heard that the defendant’s car left the road around 11pm on April 16 as he was driving from the Wolverhampton area towards Telford on the A464.
