Jailed, the mother-of-two high on cannabis in horror crash
A DRUG-addled mother-of-two who crashed into another motorist leaving her with brain injuries has been jailed.
Sylvia Brown had downed morphine and smoked cannabis before getting into her car.
When police and paramedics arrived she was slurring her speech and falling asleep as she spoke to them.
Tests later revealed she had cannabis as well as prescription drugs Oramorph and codeine in her system.
The 53-year-old lied to police, saying she had taken nothing stronger than cough mixture.
And she later claimed that traces of cannabis in her bloodstream had come from passive smoking at a party the week before the horror smash in her home town of Cranbrook, Kent.
During her trial at Maidstone Crown Court Brown denied causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
She admitted having “made a mistake in panic” and that she was a regular user of canna- bis, but denied taking the drug, or her prescription drugs, on the morning of the accident.
But yesterday she changed her plea to guilty and was jailed for two years and four months.
She was also banned from driving for four years and two months.
The court heard that no arrangements had been made for the immediate care of her teenage children.
Previously, the jury was told how Brown was driving her Honda Civic early one evening in November 2015 when she ploughed into a Mini being driven by Amy Lawrence, 23.
The Honda flipped over after forcing the Mini off the road.
Brown’s car then hit another vehicle.
Officers said that as well as struggling to talk and stay awake, Brown was agitated and argumentative with police, avoided eye contact and had “pinpoint and fixed” pupils.
Blood tests showed she had taken cannabis and morphine within the previous 24 hours.
At the start of the trial, prosecutor Daniel Stevenson said the defendant’s driving was “obviously dangerous”.
Miss Lawrence, a keen horse rider, was left with short and long-term memory loss, mood swings, constant headaches, tinnitus and nerve damage.
She can no longer ride or drive and has been unable to return to her job as an accounts administrator at Dulwich Preparatory School in Cranbrook.
In a statement to the court she said: “My life has completely changed. I have lost so much of what I enjoy.
“I don’t know if I will ever get my life back.”