Drunk mother drove at speed on three wheels
A MUM drove “spectacularly dangerously” on the A1 with a front wheel of her car missing.
Danielle Whitlie was spotted early in the morning driving a black Vauxhall Astra with no front passenger side wheel.
Sparks and smoke were flying as she broke the 50mph speed limit to overtake a lorry on the dual carriageway at Washington.
A court heard the vehicle was veering across carriageways as she struggled to keep control of it.
Other motorists reported it to police and when officers pulled her over there was a half-drunk bottle of pink gin on the passenger seat.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Whitlie, who was unsteady on her feet, refused to give a breath test and later claimed her drinks had been spiked.
In interview she said she couldn’t remember driving but remembered the tyre popping.
Now the otherwise law-abiding 27-year-old, whose “world was in tatters” after her three-year-old daughter tragically died aged three last year, has been given a suspended prison sentence.
Recorder Craig Hassall told her: “I’m not going to send you to prison. That’s despite the fact on May 24 this year you engaged in a course of spectacularly dangerous driving.
“Around 5am you were seen driving northbound on the A1 at Washington, swerving across all three lane at excessive speed and you almost lost control completely.
“That was hardly surprising given the front nearside wheel was entirely missing from your car.
“Had you lost control at that speed, in those circumstances, you know you might well not have been here today to be sentenced for what you did and others might have been killed or seriously injured with you.
“The effect of that on your eight-yearold son doesn’t bear thinking about.”
Whitlie, of Fenton Walk, West Denton, Newcastle, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, which lasted around 20 minutes, and failing to provide a specimen. She was sentenced to 12 months suspended for 12 months with a rehabilitation requirement and was banned from driving for 12 months.
Recorder Hassall said Whitlie had suffered a tragedy last November when her three-year-old daughter died in her presence without warning or explanation and “it seems obvious all of this stems from that utterly tragic situation”.
Paul Caulfield, defending, said she is of previous good character and lived happily with her two children and long-term partner until the death of her child last year.
He added: “That led to the end of the relationship in February. Her whole world was in tatters, living alone with her eight-year-old son who has significant problems.”
Mr Caulfield said on the night before her arrest, Whitlie had endured a “harrowing set of circumstances”, where a man, having subjected her to “an ordeal”, she believed set her up by spiking her drink with drugs. Mr Caulfield said while it was “bad driving”, the roads were quiet at that time of day, no damage was caused to anyone else’s property and no one was injured.