On Saturday, June 29, Gunta Vaičule was on her way back from the Latvian Athletics Championships, where she met the Paris Olympics norm. But the dream of Paris was almost chopped by a drunk driver.
Vaičule's husband Mārtiņš was driving, Gunta in the passenger seat, Mārtiņš' mum and aunt in the back.
“He hit that door and then spun us, four, five times,” Mārtiņš said. “Drove into the side without stopping, and after that came was the rolling and the glass.”
They called the ambulance themselves. The driver had fled. Mum and aunt were taken to hospital. Mārtiņš and Gunta later went to the hospital to check on their health.
“A blue car, a bump, one rollover, another … a scare, we yelled asking if everyone was alive,” Gunta recalled the moment of the crash.
The drunk, who was driving his spouse's car, had already fled into the woods. He was looked for by the victims and his friends and spouse alike.
"The first breath was 2.4 [pro mille], 15 minutes later 2.37. The craziest was his friends coming. Everybody knew he was behind the wheel, everybody was defending him,” said Mārtiņš. “I hope this will be an exemplary trial!”
"Seeing [others] being taken to hospital, with the bravado... it hurts me the most that we can be such. That we allow drunks to drive. The airbags protected us,” Gunta told LTV.
Mārtiņš' aunt suffered fractures, while Gunta got some scrapes from glass.
State Police confirmed the driver was recognized and admitted his guilt. Once the severity of the injuries of all four people injured in the crash is determined, then the prosecution article will be clear. Currently, the driver is free, said Guntars Kračus, deputy chief of the State Police's Latgale Regional Administration North Latgale Precinct.
