THE Range Rover driver who blocked a major route into York city centre last month by demolishing two traffic lights has been banned from getting behind the wheel.

Shopkeeper Zak Richie Collins, 30, was two and a half times the drink drive limit, Melanie Ibbotson, prosecuting, told York magistrates.

After his arrest, he told police he remembered nothing between buying a drink in his second pub of the evening and his air bags activating at the junction of Osbaldwick Link Road and Hull Road.

His solicitor Andrew Craven told magistrates an animal had run out in front of Collins as he was driving home.

Mr Craven told the court that Collins had then swerved to avoid it and had hit the traffic lights.

Collins runs two shops, one on either end of York, which employ seven people.

In court, self-employed Collins, of The Cranbrooks, Wheldrake, pleaded guilty to drink driving.

Collins was fined £240 by the magistrates and he was also ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs plus a £32 statutory surcharge.  He was banned for 22 months. 

The crash happened shortly before 3am on Monday, January 13 this year and it resulted in the road being closed at Hull Road from Osbaldwick Link Road to the BP garage on Lawrence Street during part of the morning rush hour which impacted on people getting to work.

Ms Ibbotson said the traffic lights were “substantially damaged” in the crash and the impact left them strewn in bits across Hull Road.

The court heard that in addition Collins’ Range Rover was so damaged that the police at the scene feared the driver had been injured, though he told them he had not.

A post and other street furniture were also damaged in the incident.

The court also heard that Collins’ breath test gave a reading of 87 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

The legal limit is 35.

Collins had told police he had had four pints when visiting one pub with his friends.

They had then gone to a second pub where he had bought a drink.

Mr Craven said Collins had drunk more than he normally did.

His car had been written off.

The ban would hit him hard because he used his car to take stock to his two shops and to make weekly visits to Manchester to see a relative.