He wanted to "see the sea", he will see the prison. A 30-year-old man was sentenced on Tuesday by the Versailles court to 18 months in prison after taking all the risks behind the wheel two days earlier on the A13 motorway.
On that day, this driver, who had been convicted of several traffic offences, left Paris to go to Normandy. He wants to get some fresh air by the sea. But he's had too much to drink, he's smoked cannabis and on top of that, he doesn't have a licence anymore. No matter, he headed for Normandy at the wheel of his Renault Mégane, as reported by our colleagues at 78actu.
Naturally, the journey goes badly. The driver overtakes on the right, drives on the hard shoulder, climbs to 180 km/h. At the toll booth, he spun and smashed through a barrier. A few kilometres further on, at Chauffour-les-Bonnières (Yvelines), he logically caused an accident with another motorist. And flees... to Paris.
Whisky, cannabis...
He ended up in a ditch near Rosny-sur-Seine, with his partner, three dogs and a cat. When the police were called urgently, he admitted to drinking whiskey and smoking weed. He was taken into custody by gendarmes before being presented to magistrates on Tuesday.
On the stand, the thirty-year-old admitted that he had behaved badly. He admits to endangering the lives of A13 users. But he asks for indulgence, arguing that he is depressed. His girlfriend wanted to leave him and he had just learned earlier that a friend had cancer. "That's why I left to go to Étretat," he said.