Builder Jailed for Ten Years for Killing Highways Worker on M23

A builder has been jailed for ten years for killing a highways worker after driving into a coned-off section of the M23 near Gatwick Airport.

Vilius Domarkas, 38, was sentenced yesterday after admitting causing death by dangerous driving at an earlier hearing. The court also disqualified him from driving for 16 years and eight months.

The fatal collision occurred on July 8. Highways worker Anthony Howe was hit by Domarkas' Citroen Relay van after it veered into the coned-off lane.

Officers at the scene found Domarkas with glazed and bloodshot eyes, slurring his speech. He was unsteady on his feet and fell over.

An evidential blood sample, taken four hours after the collision, recorded 221 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80 microgrammes per 100 millilitres. Domarkas, of no fixed address, was therefore nearly three times over the limit hours after the crash itself.

Detective Constable Kelly Newton from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit said: "This is another tragic example of drink-driving which has had devastating consequences."

She added: "Domarkas was in no fit state to drive that night, and his own vehicle's dashcam footage showed him driving erratically prior to the fatal collision."

"He has caused the death of a highways worker and put the lives of all other road users at risk when he got behind the wheel."

The case underscores the exposure of highways crews working in live traffic lanes protected only by cones. Domarkas' dashcam evidence, seized from his own vehicle, proved decisive in establishing the pattern of erratic driving before the impact, and it will remain on record alongside a driving ban that extends almost seven years beyond his prison sentence.