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Blind man fined for cycling while drunk after crashing into car

Gintaras Jankauskas was seen weaving across lanes before hitting a passing vehicle

A legally blind man has been fined €50 in court in Ireland after crashing into a car while cycling drunk.

Gintaras Jankauskas, who is "clinically blind" and has a "reading of 6/60 in his vision", appeared in Letterkenny District Court charged with the unusual offence of driving a pedal cycle while being under the influence of an intoxicant to such an extent that he was incapable of having proper control. 

The Irish Times reports the 53-year-old was seen weaving across lanes at Drumnahoagh in Letterkenny on October 4th at around 3.45pm when he hit and damaged a passing car.

When the police arrived on the scene Jankauskas was arrested for his own safety and taken to the Letterkenny Garda station where he was charged.

The court heard the cyclist was not capable of providing a breath sample to gardaí, his solicitor Patsy Gallagher explaining his client has "an issue with alcohol" but was "very apologetic".

"He is clinically blind and a blind man on a thoroughfare could do some serious damage. There is a plea to the charge and he was very apologetic to gardaí," Mr Gallagher said.

"He has an issue with alcohol and the gardaí were very humane towards him."

The court heard that Jankauskas had one previous conviction under the Public Order Act, the defence solicitor explaining his client has been in Ireland for 17 years and is "stuck here" because he cannot work due to his disability.

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

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10 comments

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eburtthebike | 1 year ago
5 likes

Would never have been convicted if he'd had a decent lawyer.  Clearly it was the car's fault for not wearing hi-viz.

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Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
3 likes

There was a story many years ago in either Punch or Private Eye about a blind man who crashed his car while driving. He was very apologetic but explained he had been driving blind for years with his wife acting as his navigator, unfortunately at the time of the crash she had been distracted by looking at hang glider overhead…

Avatar
essexian replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
6 likes

True story but around 20 years ago there was a manager in one of the branches I oversee who was registered blind but still drove to work everyday as: "I know the way by memory......."

 

 

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brooksby replied to essexian | 1 year ago
0 likes

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Tom_77 replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
2 likes

There's a Peugeot (car) ad with Ray Charles - https://youtu.be/zZ5dggGpq-Q

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hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
1 like

So presumably he was riding his own bike? Maybe his vision is sufficient for some cycling, but not whilst drunk.

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Sriracha replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
6 likes
hawkinspeter wrote:

Maybe his vision is sufficient for some cycling, but not whilst drunk.

Exactly, because then he's blind drunk.

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essexian | 1 year ago
6 likes

He could come to the UK.... we are struggling to get sufficient people to drive black cabs so he would walk into a job. 

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tootsie323 replied to essexian | 1 year ago
4 likes

He'll walk into something...

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Safety replied to essexian | 1 year ago
0 likes
essexian wrote:

He could come to the UK.... we are struggling to get sufficient people to drive black cabs so he would walk into a job. 

I thought he had.

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