Crash victim was over limit (From York Press)

Crash victim Maninder Kundra was over limit

9:14am Saturday 20th October 2012 in News By Dan Bean, dan.bean@thepress.co.uk

A DRIVER who crashed and died near Selby was twice the drink-drive limit and had been awake for 18 hours, an inquest has heard.

Maninder Singh Kundra was 22 when the silver Vauxhall Corsa he was driving left the A1041 near Barlow in the early hours of Saturday, April 21.

Mr Kundra had travelled to Leeds with friends from his home in Doncaster, and picked up another friend from Cawood, and spent the night at a bar and nightclub in the city, an inquest at Selby Magistrates’ Court heard.

He had been awake for 18 hours and had dropped a friend off in Cawood before setting off towards Doncaster with 25-year-old Agyapal Dhaliwal in the passenger seat at about 4.50am, when the crash occurred.

Mr Dhaliwal said he and others in the group had been drinking vodka. He told the inquest: “Maninder to me seemed okay, but I can’t remember, to be honest. He didn’t show any signs of being drunk that I can recollect. If I’d thought he was drunk, I wouldn’t have let him drive home.”

A post-mortem examination concluded Mr Kundra died from injuries sustained in the crash.

His blood contained 173mg of alcohol per 100 ml, the equivalent of 11 tots of whisky or five-and-a-half pints of beer, meaning he was more than twice the legal drink drive limit.

Traffic Constable Steven Kirkbright said tyre tracks showed the vehicle had drifted off the road and on to the grass verge for about 100 metres, before Mr Kundra swerved back into the road.

The tyre marks indicated he then over-corrected, and the car left the road, hitting two trees and a concrete bollard.

PC Kirkbright said: “It is my opinion that Mr Kundra lost control of the Corsa whilst double the drink-drive limit, and this was due to intoxication and lack of sleep.”

Selby coroner Rob Turnbull ruled Mr Kundra’s death to be an accident, and said: “We cannot ignore the fact that alcohol was present in some significant degree in this case, and perhaps it will serve as a warning to others who will contemplate driving after drinking.”