Jan Ullrich to appear in court on drunk driving charge

Jan Ullrich is to appear before a Swiss judge charged with drunk driving, reports AFP. The charges date from May 2014 when the former German professional cyclist was involved in a collision in which two people were injured.

His silver Audi A6 station wagon is said to have rear-ended a Citröen C3 Pluriel at a stop sign near the village of Happerswil in the region of Thurgovie in north-east Switzerland. According to Swiss newspaper, Blick, The Citröen flipped over from the force of collision, while Ullrich’s car then hit an Alfa Romeo 147 before ending up in a field.

Speaking to the newspaper shortly afterwards, Ullrich claimed that alcohol had not been involved, although he admitted that he had been driving around 20km/h too quickly.

“I’m sorry. I was stressed, coming from an appointment, and wanted to go home as soon as possible.”

If found guilty, 41-year-old Ullrich could potentially face a jail sentence of up to three years as well as a fine.

"It's inexcusable to have driven in the state I was in. It was a terrible mistake, and I deeply regret it," he commented.

This is not the first time that Ullrich has been in trouble for drink driving. In 2002 he lost his driving licence for a year and was fined two months’ salary following another incident.  

On that occasion, he knocked out a rack of bikes with his Porsche 911 outside a Freiburg hotel in the early hours of the morning. He fled the scene, but a witness took the number of his car and informed the police. When they took a blood sample from him, he was found to have three times the permitted level of alcohol in his blood when driving.

Initial reports said that Alexandre Vinokourov was also in the car, but this proved not to be the case. However, ex-world tandem champion Erk Pokorny was, along with two girls.