She blew seven times limit

A WOMAN driver involved in a two-car crash on a Toowoomba street was found to be more than seven times the legal blood/alcohol limit.

Police called to the crash scene on Jonathon St, Rockville, about 6.30pm on November 16, found Achol Majok Yuol lying on the ground near the vehicles, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard.

The 49-year-old smelt heavily of alcohol, and police called an ambulance for her, police prosecutor Catherine Nielsen said.

The officers followed the ambulance to Toowoomba Hospital where a sample of blood was taken for analysis which showed Yuol at the time had a blood/alcohol level of 0.374, Senior Constable Nielsen said.

She pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of liquor.

Duty solicitor Amber Acreman, of David Burns Lawyers, told the court her client was a mother of five children under 15 and had arrived in Australia 14 years ago as a refugee from Uganda.

Just before the incident, her client’s husband had returned to Africa on holiday, and she didn’t know when he was coming back which had led to her drinking, she said.

Because she had lost her driver’s licence due to the high blood/alcohol reading she had lost her job so Yuol had already paid a heavy penalty, Ms Acreman submitted.

Her client had no criminal history at all and this incident appeared to be an aberration on her part, she said.

“It has been a very salient lesson (for her),” Ms Acreman told the court.

Yuol was expecting her husband to return to Australia to help with the family, she said.

Magistrate Damian Carroll was visibly amazed at the high reading.

“You were severely intoxicated,” he told Yuol.

However, taking into account it was her first offence, Mr Carroll ordered the conviction not be recorded.

Acknowledging she had been without her driver’s licence since the incident on November 16, Mr Carroll fined her $900 and disqualified her from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for the next 15 months.