A CRASH victim is too scared to get back on his bike after suffering life-changing injuries at the hands of a drunk driver.

Paul O’Boyle said he is thankful it was him and not a child when he was knocked off his bicycle at Wallisdown Road by intoxicated driver Harry Whitlock, last year.

He was thrown from his bike - which he has yet to get back on for fear of another collision - and flung into the air, on July 18, landing several feet from it.

He suffered a bleed on his brain, bruising to his lung and shoulder injuries - for which he is still receiving speech and physiotherapy.

Mr O’Boyle - a caretaker at the Bishop of Winchester Academy - told Bournemouth Crown Court on Friday he still suffers from short-term memory loss which may affect any future employment. The avid sportsman cannot take part in marathons as doctors are concerned about pressure within his skull. The court was told his “brain was thrown side-to-side” during the crash, prosecutor Stuart Ellacott said.

“I’m too scared to get back on the bike at the moment,” Mr O’Boyle said. “Only he knows why he was driving drunk. I’m in no doubt Mr Whitlock didn’t get up that morning intending to hit me. What I fail to understand is how anybody can get into a vehicle intoxicated. Fortunately I wasn’t killed.

“I have had excellent help from the NHS which I’m eternally grateful for.”

Whitlock, of Fernhill Close in Poole, was imprisoned for 15 months and disqualified from driving for three years and seven months for causing Mr O’Boyle’s horrific injuries.

Speaking after the Bournemouth Crown Court hearing, Mr O’Boyle said: “The evidence in front of us was overwhelming.

“He could have killed me and he could have killed somebody’s child which would ruin somebody’s life.

“What frightens me is that one morning you’re living your life and the next...the effect it would have had on my daughter, if I’d have been killed, that’s the one thing that made me really angry.

“I think it’s justice well done and I’m very happy with the judge’s decision.”

Whitlock, 57, was seen swerving all over the road and even into the path of oncoming traffic, on account of being over the drink-drive limit, by off-duty police officer Sgt Heather Mullins. She followed him from Cemetery Junction before the incident at Benbow Crescent.

Whitlock pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and to driving with excess alcohol - for which he received three months in prison, to run concurrently.

He was one-and-a-half times over the limit, with 127mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood, officers concluded.

Kevin Hill, mitigating, told the hearing Whitlock was “more than sorry”, adding: “He certainly shows real and genuine remorse.”

Judge Peter Crabtree OBE told Whitlock he must serve a minimum term of seven-and-a-half months, adding that he was “a real risk to other road users”.

He said: “[Mr O’Boyle] was lifted into the air and landed in a heap unconscious. These are serious offences.”