Pulp Fiction writer jailed for fatal crash

Roger Avary, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Pulp Fiction, was yesterday sentenced to a year behind bars and five years on probation for his role in a fatal crash in January last year.

Avary had earlier pleaded guilty to the charges of vehicular manslaughter and drunk-driving. "It has profoundly altered me to the very core of my being," a remorseful Avary said in the courtroom.

Authorities claim that Avary was driving at speeds over 100mph when his Mercedes ploughed into a telephone pole in Ventura County, California. The crash killed his 34-year-old passenger Andreas Zini, who was visiting from Italy on his honeymoon, while Avary's wife was thrown from the vehicle, suffering serious injuries. It emerged that Avary has also settled a $4.1m (£2.5m) civil suit filed by Zini's family.

Avary, now 44, won an Oscar in 1995 for co-writing Pulp Fiction with his one-time friend, Quentin Tarantino. He made his own directing debut with 1994's Paris-set thriller Killing Zoe, and went on to direct 2002's provocative Bret Easton Ellis adaptation The Rules of Attraction. More recently, he co-wrote and produced Robert Zemeckis's motion-capture epic Beowulf.

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