Two families have been left devastated after a drink-driver caused a fatal 100mph crash on an East London road
Nerijus Kuneckis, who has been jailed at the Old Bailey in London, for 12 years after he caused the deaths of a father and one of his closest friends in a car crash while “over the drink-driving limit”.(Image: MPS)
An Audi SUV driver who caused the deaths of a father and one of his closest friends in a car crash while over the drink-driving limit has been jailed for 12 years. Laimonas Narvydas, 38, and 44-year-old Kalin Hadzhiev died during the collision on the A13 near Rainham, east London, just before 4.30pm on February 14 last year.
The driver of the black Audi Q5, Lithuania-born construction worker Nerijus Kuneckis, 51, of Olive Road in Plaistow, was overheard telling a doctor that he had been drinking before the crash and that he had drunk two shots, the Old Bailey heard on Friday.
A forensic scientist analysed a blood sample taken two hours after the collision and found that married father Kuneckis was more than twice the legal limit for driving in the UK, which “would be expected to produce significant intoxication”, the court heard.
The Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft KC, told Kuneckis that CCTV of the crash played in court showed a “shocking and frightening sequence of events arising out of your sustained dangerous driving”. He said: “In seconds, the lives of two much-loved individuals were lost.”
The judge added that the defendant’s driving showed “a complete disregard for the safety of others” and that he was “clearly driving over the drink-driving limit”. The defendant had admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.
Lisa Goddard, prosecuting, said that Mr Narvydas, a close friend of Kuneckis, was a passenger in the car as the defendant was “changing lanes, weaving in and out of traffic” on the dual carriageway.
