A van driver who drove into coned-off roadworks on the M23 and killed a highways worker has been jailed for 10 years.
Vilius Domarkas, 38, admitted causing death by dangerous driving after striking Anthony Howe on the southbound carriageway at junction nine, near Gatwick, at about 01:00 BST on 8 July.
Mr Howe had been out of his vehicle for seven seconds when he was hit, the court heard.
Driver was over the legal alcohol limit
Lewes Crown Court heard that Domarkas had recently flown into Stansted Airport from Lithuania, where he had been in rehabilitation for alcohol problems.
Judge Martin Huseyin said the driver of the Citroen Relay van had been “zigzagging between lanes” before veering into a coned-off area of the slip road.
A blood sample taken four hours after the crash showed 221 microgrammes of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 80 microgrammes per 100ml. The judge estimated Domarkas had been three or four times over the limit when the collision happened.
Sussex Police said Domarkas had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and struggled to keep his balance after the crash. He stopped about 500m away and called police, saying his windscreen was cracked but that he did not know why.
“You were so drunk you didn’t appear to know why,” Judge Huseyin told him.
‘Entire world was ripped apart’
In a victim statement, Mr Howe’s partner, Lillian Bonney, said: “Tony was my best friend and a life without him is not something I had thought about.”
She described him as a hard-working man who had been looking forward to retiring, adding: “The defendant made a choice that ruined my ‘happily ever after’.”
Judge Huseyin said the people who knew and loved Mr Howe were the most important consideration in the case. He added: “Mr Howe was best described by three simple words: he was a good man.”
Domarkas, who has no fixed address, was also disqualified from driving for 16 years and eight months. He was told he would serve two-thirds of his sentence in prison.
In mitigation, Andrew Bullivant said Domarkas was “genuinely remorseful” and intended to return to Lithuania after completing his sentence. He said Domarkas had been dealing with the breakdown of his marriage and had “took the fatal decision to drink”.