A police officer in New Caledonia has been given a jail sentence for causing a fatal road accident while drink driving.
Gendarmerie vehicle in New Caledonia Photo: RNZ Walter Zweifel
The criminal court sentenced the 58-year-old man to three years in prison for causing the death of the 26-year-old driver of an oncoming car.
The off-duty officer had been drinking in Noumea and fell asleep at the wheel, drifting across the road into the oncoming car.
The other driver was killed instantly in the crash in Boulouparis in the early hours of 3 November.
The police officer, who worked in driver education and was only days away from retirement, was almost four times over the alcohol limit at the time of the crash.
