Drink-driver broke biker's back in horror Wakefield smash - then tried to pin blame on him

Andrejs Stepanovs even tried to claim that he was stationary when the biker collided with his Vauxhall Astra in Ossett and was thrown into a lamppost.

The 50-year-old later admitted causing serious injury through careless driving, and drink driving. He has previously been convicted of drink driving in 2010.

Leeds Crown Court heard that Stepanovs had been heading along The Green on February 12 last year, when he turned onto the junction with Healey Road and cut across the oncoming biker.

The rider was thrown over the handlebars of his new bike and landed a “considerable distance” from the scene, striking the lamppost.

The 20-year-old suffered fractures to three of his vertebrae, a fracture to his tibia, to his foot, ligament damage to his knee and chipped teeth. He also had “serious tearing” around his groin area. Prosecutor David Ward said he was still “struggling” to recover from his injuries.

Stepanovs, of Kirkgate, Wakefield, was given a road-side breath test and blew over the limit. However, due to a delay getting him to the police station, he later blew under the limit.

But forensic calculations estimated he had 51 mcgs of alcohol in 100 mls of breath at the time of the crash. The legal limit is 35 mcgs.

He initially denied any wrongdoing during his police interview, claiming he was not moving when the bike struck his car. He said the biker was on the wrong side of the road, and that his light was not working properly. He also said he had not had a drink for 16 hours.

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CCTV and witnesses disproved his claims, although one did say the bike’s headline was dim. Little personal mitigation was provided by his barrister, but he pointed to Stepanovs’ guilty pleas.

Judge Ray Singh told Stepanovs: “You tried to blame him [the biker] for the accident, you suggested he was travelling too fast. I’m afraid all of that was wholly untrue.”

He gave him 12 months’ jail, suspended for two years, 240 hours of unpaid work and a four-month electronically-tagged alcohol abstinence requirement. He was also banned from driving for two years.