This is what happened to a flash Audi TT after the driver got behind the wheel while over the drink-drive limit.
Keri Paul Graham ploughed into the barriers on the M4 Briton Ferry bridge after a night out at a concert in Cardiff . A subsequent breath test showed he was almost twice the legal limit for alcohol.
Julie Sullivan, prosecuting at Swansea Magistreates' Court, said police were called to a crash on the westbound side of the bridge just after 5am on June 27 this year.
Officers found an Audi TT car with "extensive front-end damage", debris scattered over the carriageway, and "significant damage" to the barriers and railings.
Graham gave a positive roadside breath test and a later evidential test showed he had 63mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath with the legal limit being 35mg.
In his police interview he gave officers a prepared statement saying he had been to a concert in Cardiff the night before and after staying with friends in a hotel had decided to drive home. He also apologised for his actions.
Graham, 38, of Clayton Drive, Pontarddulais , pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol when he appeared before justices. The court heard the telesales worker has two previous convictions for similar offences with the last coming in 2007.
Ian Hopkins, for Graham, described the events of June 27 as a "rather unfortunate course of events".
He said it was not a case where somebody "simply rolls out of a pub and drives". He said the defendant had slept a while in a hotel after the gig and had eaten breakfast and drunk coffee and then, believing he was fine to drive, headed home.
He said Graham maintained there had been debris on the bridge which he had swerved to avoid and the solicitor descried the incident as a "momentary lapse of judgement".
Graham was disqualified from driving for 18 months and fined £140. He must also pay £85 costs and a £30 surcharge.
