Drink-driver banned after four-car smash

Dean Percival was more than twice the legal limit when breath-tested after the collision on Ormskirk Road, Pemberton, last month, Wigan and Leigh magistrates heard.

The 31-year-old was at the wheel of a black Ford Focus Zetec when he lost control near to where the road forks around the former Carnegie library.

His car was extensively damaged after it careered into three other vehicles parked at the side of the road before it came to rest 100 yards further up the road.

Luckily for Percival, he escaped from the wreckage relatively unscathed.

Emergency services attended the scene and residents reported being woken by the loud bang at around 2am on January 27.

The Ford smashed first into a white Renault Clio belonging to 52-year-old office administrator Beverley Lancaster, in turn shunting it and ploughing into two Vauxhalls: an Astra and Zafira, belonging to other residents.

Beverley’s 26-year-old son Adam told the Wigan Observer at the time that the side of the Zetec was “ripped open like a sardine tin.”

He said: “It was a right mess. The police said that all the cars had been written off. They took the others away but my mum’s has had to stay put for now because it is undriveable.”

The hearing was told that Percival, of Woodford Street, Pemberton. had 81 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath when the legal limit is 35.

He was disqualified from driving for 17 months although that ban can be reduced by 25 per cent if he agrees to go on a rehabilitation course. He was also fined £120 and ordered to pay both a £30 victim surcharge and £85 court costs.