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@spindrift
A tipper truck driver crushed a City boss to death under the wheels of his HGV while chatting on his mobile phone, a court heard.
Dennis Putz, 51, was over the legal drink drive limit when he hit cyclist Catriona Patel, 39, as he accelerated away from a set of traffic lights outside Oval tube station in south London.
Ms Patel, a keen cyclist who lived in Clapham, south London, was pronounced dead at 11.30am after being airlifted to the Royal London Hospital, where surgeons battled in vain to save her life.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327813/Tipper-truck-driver-killed-woman-City-boss-chatting-mobile-phone.html#ixzz14mJWYsDX
He has admitted making a call on his mobile phone at the time of the accident, which was captured on CCTV, but insists he was using a hands-free kit.
A police officer at the scene smelt alcohol on his breath while a member of the public told investigators Putz looked 'flustered', the court heard.
Jonathan Polnay, prosecuting, said the driver's was breath-tested 80 minutes following the crash, returning a reading of 39mg in 100ml of breath.
The legal limit is 35mg.
He said: 'A forensic scientist has concluded that at the time of the crash, his alcohol breath reading was likely to have been 49mg - 50 per cent over the drink-drive limit.' Putz denied drinking that morning but said he had consumed seven pints of Guinness the previous day, stopping at around 9pm.