Freeway driving erratic

He saw Daniel Phillip Sheppard several times on the Hume as he approached from the north.

Shepperd's car was swerving from side-to-side, eventually slamming  into safety wires on the freeway's centre median strip in Albury.

Sheppard, who had suffered in the past with anxiety and depression, had 10 schooners of cider under his belt from a five-hour drinking session at Tumut.

"This man's lucky to be alive," magistrate Tony Murray told Sheppard's solicitor, Paul Robb, in Albury Local Court on Tuesday.

"What can you say?"

The court was told how the truck driver was heading south on the freeway on September 11 when he saw Sheppard's car at 12.15am.

Sheppard, 34, was swerving in an out of his lane.

A bit later he again came across Sheppard further south at Woomargama, where he continued to drive erratically.

At 12.45am, the truck driver saw Sheppard's car leave the freeway in Albury and crash into wire crash barriers in the centre median strip.

But the impact did not stop Sheppard, who struggled to maintain control yet still got the car back onto the freeway – only to crash twice into the man's truck.

Sheppard's car left the freeway at the Borella Road exit followed by the truck driver.

The truck driver demanded Sheppard, a concretor by trade, hand over his keys and wallet, then called the police.

Sheppard had a blood alcohol reading of .133.

Mr Robb said it had been eight years since Sheppard's last drink-driving matter.

"He's taken very significant steps (since), first in relation to his alcohol use but further in relation to his anxiety," he said.

Mr Murray said Shepherd had shown himself capable of changing his ways in the past and needed to do so again.

"It's sad to see you back before the court," he said.

Sheppard was convicted and fined $1000 and lost his licence for eight months.