A van driver has pleaded guilty to causing the death of a 65-year-old highway worker by dangerous driving on the M23.
Anthony Howe, an employee of HW Martin, lost his life on 8 July while at work on the M23 after a van driven by Vilius Domarkas, 38, collided with him.
Mr Domarkas appeared in Hove Crown Court last Thursday and entered a guilty plea, admitting to causing the death of Mr Howe by dangerous driving.
Sussex Police said that he was 'found with his Citroen Relay van with glazed and bloodshot eyes and was slurring his speech, he was unsteady on his feet and fell over'.
Mr Howe had stopped inside a coned off area of the slip road and had exited a Ford Transit Dropside, when he was struck by Domarkas' Citroen which veered into the coned off lane.
Mr Domarkas was also found to be well over the legal limit for alcohol. Sussex Police stated that a blood sample test he provided four hours after the crash showed 221 microgrammes (ug) per 100ml of blood – the limit for driving in the UK is 80ug per 100ml.
Drink driving is one of the 'fatal five' causes of people being killed and seriously injured on our roads, along with drug-driving, driving at excess speed, not wearing a seatbelt, being distracted behind the wheel such as by using a mobile phone, and careless or dangerous driving.
Speaking after the hearing, Det Con Kelly Newton said: ‘This is another tragic example of drink-driving which has had devastating consequences.
'Domarkas was in no fit state to drive that night, and his own vehicle's dashcam footage showed him driving erratically prior to the fatal collision.
'He has caused the death of a highways worker and put the lives of all other road users at risk when he got behind the wheel.
'Our thoughts continue to be with the family of the highways worker who died.'
Mr Domarkas is to be sentenced on 28 September.
