A FORMER player for one of Wales’s top rugby sides was drink-driving and wore no seatbelt when his car hit a tree, an inquest heard on Thursday.

Emrys Evans, aged 41, of Pandy Tudur, near Llanrwst, was thrown through the sunroof of the Renault Megane. His passenger Michael Evans survived the crash on a straight stretch of the A470 near Ganllwyd, north of Dolgellau, last March, where there is a 60mph limit.

Collision investigator PC James Nobbs said there was no physical evidence of the speed but it was a crash “at or below the speed limit.”

Michael Evans said he and his pal, an ex-Llandovery centre, had gone to the town the day before the tragedy and they had been drinking. On the Sunday they set off home and stopped for a pint at Machynlleth and Cross Foxes.

He described Emrys Evans, a builder and farmer, as a fast driver. “Every time I went with him he did drive very quickly,” the witness told the inquest. He said the car had “wobbled” and he looked up just before the smash.

“I remember looking up and seeing the trees,” Mr Evans said. It had been raining. “I just remember the wobble and when I looked up I just saw the trees.”

North West Wales senior coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said at Caernarfon a seatbelt saved the passenger but the driver wasn’t in the habit of wearing one. Tests showed the dead man had been more than two-and-a-half times the alcohol limit.

“I believe alcohol is a relevant feature here. It must have impaired his ability first of all to drive the car but more to deal with an emergency situation,” the coroner said. He added that seatbelts do save lives.

A conclusion of accidental death was recorded on the former Llandovery and Nant Conwy player.