Drink-driver 'dozed off' before killing friend in M6 crash in Cheshire

A delivery driver who killed his friend in a crash after "dozing off" at the wheel while drinking alcohol has been jailed for five years.

Whisky bottles were found in the cab when Sukhdeep Gill, 36, ploughed into a van at 70mph on the hard shoulder of the M6 in Cheshire in August 2018.

His passenger Junaid Akhtar, 37, was seriously injured and died in hospital.

Gill had earlier admitted causing death by careless driving while over twice the legal limit.

He was also banned from driving for six years at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday.

Jailing him, Judge Steven Everett told Gill: "This was not just drinking and driving, this was drinking whilst driving.

"You were tired and struggling to stay awake and yet you carried on driving whilst drinking.

"All of this was your fault, nobody else's."

Gill, of Beardwood Brow, Blackburn, had been working as a delivery driver before driving north on the M6 near Knutsford in Cheshire when the fatal crash happened.

His Mercedes Sprinter drifted across white lines on the motorway before hitting another Sprinter van parked on the hard shoulder with its hazard lights on, police said.

The driver of the other van, a man from Sheffield, suffered whiplash and a broken collarbone.

Police called to the scene noticed Gill smelled strongly of alcohol and found two small whisky bottles and an empty can of lager in the footwell of the van.

A breath test showed he was more than twice the legal limit.

Lisa Judge, defending, told the court that Gill had been given the drinks by passenger Mr Akhtar and was not aware of the level of alcohol supplied to him.

Outside court, PC Liz Thompson, of Cheshire Police, said: "This was a tragic but entirely preventable collision caused by Gill's poor driving and his decision to drive while under the influence."