A Polish drink driver who caused a road accident which left his friend paralysed narrowly avoided jail at Forfar Sheriff Court.
Digger driver Robert Buzalski was previously found guilty by trial of seriously injuring his work colleague Krysztof Birula in the August 2013 smash which saw their hire car plough off a glens farm road and into a river below.
Buzalski was one-and-a-half times the legal drink drive limit after he and two pals had downed liqueur vodka before deciding to go to nearby Edzell, leading to the fateful journey in terrible weather conditions.
The jury found by majority that Buzalski’s driving on the unclassified road leading to Dalbog Farm, near Edzell on August 24 2013 had been dangerous rather than careless.
When he was breathalysed it was found he had a blood alcohol reading of 124 milligrammes, above the legal limit at the time of 80.
Sentence was previously deferred for a criminal justice social work report.
Addressing Sheriff Pino Di Emidio yesterday, defence agent Brian Bell acknowledged that the harm caused in the case was “extremely high” but in his submission also raised several mitigating factors.
He said: “Mr Birula has suffered life changing injuries. He is confined to a wheelchair and will remain so for the rest of his life.
“He has recovered limited movement since the incident but it would be proper to describe the harm as extremely high.
“In terms of the case I would submit that the dangerous driving can properly be describes as being at the lower end of the scale. The most significant factor is the consumption of alcohol prior to the incident.”
Mr Bell said there were a number of mitigating factors including that there he wasn’t driving at high speed, that there was no prolonged period of bad driving and no “gross” impairment through alcohol, noting that the police officer who attended the crash stated there were no visible signs that Buzalski had been drinking.
He also noted that Buzalski’s back-seat passenger Mr Birula hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt.
“If Mr Birula had had his seatbelt on it’s likely he would have walked out of the car as Buzalski and his front seat passenger did,” he said.
“The legal responsibility fell on Mr Birula to fasten his seatbelt.”
He said his client had significant remorse over the incident and also that he and Mr Birula remained friends.
Sheriff Pino Di Emidio sentenced Buzalski to a community payback order with the maximum amount of unpaid work of 300 hours.
He told Buzalski: “The quality of your driving on this occasion was far below that of a competent driver and the terrible consequences of your actions will continue to affect Mr Birula and his family.
“Nothing I can do can lessen the hurt caused to him. I believe you will also continue to be affected by remorse and guilt.
“I have concluded that I can properly deal with this by non-custodial means.”
The community payback order is a direct alternative to custody.
Sheriff Di Emidio also disqualified Buzalski for driving for four years.
