A DRUNK lorry driver who ploughed into a tractor and then fled the scene, leaving farm worker Dennis Watts dying at the roadside, has been jailed for six years.

Belgian Didier Gillis was about three times the drink-drive limit when he crashed into the back of the farm workers' tractor and trailer at 60mph.

The 56-year-old, from Bere Regis, Dorset, was thrown from his cab and landed head first in the road along the A35 near Tolpuddle Ball on April 7.

Gillis fled the scene and hitched a lift with another lorry driver, who became suspicious and dropped him off before calling police.

Gillis walked into Puddletown, caught a bus to Dorchester and was arrested at the town's railway station, having just bought a single ticket to London.

He told officers he had reached into his fridge for a can of cola when he crashed into the tractor.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard that the 45-year-old, from Lochristi, Belgium, had been drinking the night before and had another can of strong 5.2 per cent lager that morning.

In his cab were empty cans, an empty bottle of port and another which was half drunk. Back calculations showed he had up to 124 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

He would have been nearer four times the limit with around 145mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath when he set off from St Austell, Cornwall, at 8am that morning carrying a tanker full of dry China clay.

He earlier pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop after a collision and failing to report the accident.