The crash took place in the early hours of July 9 as Roja's Fishing Festival (Zvejnieksvētki) was about to conclude. The victim, a 33-year-old man, was hospitalized with serious injuries including broken bones after he was shot into air when the Chrysler car drove onto him.
The driver had a blood alcohol content of 1.4 per mille, well over the official limit of 0.5 per mille. The man was found only six hours after the incident, which suggests he was very drunk at the time of the crash.
Eyewitnesses say the driver had been aggressive and had threatened bystanders with a baseball bat before he got into his car and purposely drove over one of the men who had tried to calm him down.
The Riga-born driver does not have a licence and currently works abroad. The police have confiscated his car.
