Lady driver blew five times legal alcohol limit

A WESTROOK woman who blew almost five times the legal alcohol limit after crashing her car into a road sign has copped a hefty fine and licence disqualification.

Police called to the report of a single motor vehicle crash on Shoesmith Road, Westbrook, about noon, February 28, arrived to find a road sign damaged but no car.

Inquiries led police to the home of Emma Catherine Bennett who appeared unsteady on her feet and slurring her words as police spoke with her, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard.

The 39-year-old told police she had two beers before driving about half an hour earlier and had drunk a double vodka when she got home.

However, she said she had drunk a 750ml bottle of vodka the night before, police prosecutor Shelby Larcombe told the court.

She was breath-tested at 1.20pm at 0.248, the prosecutor said.

Bennett’s solicitor John Davis, of Kennedy Spanner Lawyers, told the court his client had after the incident attended Alcoholics Anonymous and Lives Lived Well and had been sober since.

His client had been going through a time of anxiety due to a number of factors and had been drinking heavily, he said.

This event had been a “massive wakeup call” for her, but she wished it hadn’t have come to this, Mr Davis said.

Magistrate Graham Lee noted her early pleas of guilty and fined Bennett $1500, disqualified her from driving for 13 months and ordered she pay $325 restitution for the damaged road sign.