A lorry driver who had been drinking caused rush hour chaos when he tipped a 40-tonne load of peat on to the Kingsway in Dundee.
Darren Moorhouse drank three-quarters of a bottle of vodka while collecting a delivery and had 111 microgrammes of alcohol on his breath almost three times the limit when his trailer broke free.
It crashed into the fast lane of Kingsway West, near the Myrekirk roundabout, on April 23.
The accident happened close to the pedestrian crossing, with the top of the trailer smashing the pavement.
Moorhouse, 40, of Burnley Road, Burnley, admitted driving the HGV after consuming alcohol when he appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
He also admitted driving dangerously by attempting to negotiate the roundabout at excessive speed and losing control of the vehicle.
He admitted causing the trailer to topple over, detach from the tractor unit and fall on to the off side lane of the dual carriageway where it collided with a safety barrier.
The court heard from defence solicitor Mike Ferrie that while working for Express Freight Solutions, Moorhouse had dropped off a load in Ellon, which is where he purchased a bottle of vodka.
He then consumed three-quarters of the bottle while loading 23 tonnes of loose peat briquettes in Peterhead, and was making the journey back to England when he crashed.
Depute fiscal Susan Ruta told the court the lorry had gradually slowed down as a pedestrian crossed the road just before the roundabout, then while negotiating the roundabout itself the off side wheels had lifted from the ground.
She said: “The vehicle then turned to the left to egress from the roundabout and the load and trailer had shifted to the off side.”
Depute fiscal Susan Ruta added: “The trailer unit then became detached from the tractor unit and landed on its side in lane two, continuing to slide for a short distance and coming to rest in lane two and on the central reservation.”
The accident took place shortly after 5pm and by 6.30pm, when Moorhouse was taken to police headquarters, he gave an alcohol reading of almost three times the limit.
The vehicle’s tachograph was analysed and the fiscal said while it was difficult to say for sure what speed it was doing at the time of the accident, it is thought to have been travelling at between 20 and 25mph.
The court heard he had been suspended from driving after the incident, and had lost his job as a result.
Sentence was deferred until August 13 and Moorhouse was granted bail but disqualified from driving in the meantime.