Dangerous Dingwall drink-driver was five-times the limit

A drunk driver courier was five times the alcohol limit when he veered into oncoming traffic and forced another vehicle to take evasive action.

Later, delivery driver Andrei Bartko was found “staggering” out of his van outside his home.

When the police arrived to arrest him, he was so unsteady on his legs that they had to put him in a police car.

Bartko, 46, appeared in Inverness Sheriff’s Court to plead guilty to DUI and dangerous driving charges in connection with the November 11 incident last year.

Deputy Treasurer Emma McEwan said that at about 8:45 pm that day, witnesses were traveling down Tulloch Road in Dingwall when they encountered Bartco’s van on the other side of the road.

frontal collision avoidance

Other vehicles had to take evasive maneuvers to avoid head-on collisions, Ms MacEwan told the court.

After this close call, the other driver turned and followed Bartko, and the police were called.

The driver followed Bartko to his home address on Fraser Road and was seen stumbling out of the van.

A policeman was present and found him smelling of alcohol, with glassy eyes and unsteady legs.

He had so much difficulty walking that he had to be helped to a police car.

When asked through a telephone interpreter who was driving the car, he said, “I was driving.”

Dangerous drivers were 5 times the limit

After failing a roadside breath test, he was taken to Barnett Road Police Station, where further tests revealed his breath alcohol concentration to be 123 micrograms per 100 milliliters. This is five times more than his legal limit of 22 micrograms.

Bartko’s attorney, Matthew Berlow, said the inevitable loss of his driver’s license would put delivery driver Bartko and his family in “dire financial trouble.”

He acknowledged the “extremely high readings” and said he suspected they could be signs of “a deeper-rooted problem that Mr. Bartko needs to address.”

The married father of three “deeply regrets his actions”.

Berlow added:

Sheriff Elid MacDonald has postponed sentencing until next month to prepare a report, disqualifying him from driving Bartco in the meantime.