A crash victim who was found unconscious at the bottom of a six foot ditch has been charged with drink driving.
Liam Collins, 28, who was found in the ditch by a police drone, failed a breath test after he was discharged from hospital.
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He was found more than 500 feet away from a crashed car after the drone directed officers to him with a thermal image.
A Lincolnshire Police spokeswoman confirmed the driver was breath-tested at the police station after being discharged from hospital.
He also faces a charge of driving without insurance, she said.
Police officers found Collins after initiating a search for the driver of an overturned car on the A16 near Ludborough, Lincolnshire, in the early hours of Sunday.
The spokeswoman added: ‘Knowing that temperatures were near freezing, and that the man was potentially injured, officers decided to deploy the drone.
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‘With infrared and thermal technology, the drone was able to pick up the location of the man quickly and efficiently.’
The footage shows a police officer walking towards the man being directed by the drone pilot. When he finds him he calls another officer who is seen running to the scene as an ambulance is called.
Police say the quick response may have saved the man’s life as hypothermia was setting in due to the freezing conditions.
He was taken to hospital in Grimsby.
Without the drone police were faced with searching the road and fields in the pitch black in freezing temperatures and hours before the sun rose.
Sergeant Mike Templeman highlighted that timing was of the essence. He said: ‘We did extensive searches, but obviously we are very rural and it was very dark so you’re limited in what you can see.
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‘The man was unresponsive and hypothermic when we found him.’
He said the technology could ‘possibly have saved his life.’
‘Without the drone this search could have taken much longer. It possibly saved a man’s life,’ he said.
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