Wrong-way crash driver over limit six hours later

‘He admits having a lot to drink that night and then meeting a girl. He doesn’t know her name or what she looks like. He just remembers waking up in her flat.’

A motorist involved in a head-on crash while travelling the wrong way down a one-way street was still twice the drink drive limit SIX hours later.

Thomas Armstrong, of Kings Road, Aylesham, had gone out to watch a football match in a pub but ended up in the London flat of a woman he did not know.

At 3am he decided to chance driving to his mother’s home but smashed his Proton Savvy into an oncoming car in Dover, seriously injuring a passenger.

The 27-year-old upholsterer pleaded guilty to causing serious injuries to Michelle Want, who was travelling in her friend Paul Andrews’ Nissan.

Prosecutor Vivian Walters told Canterbury Crown Court how Mr Andrews was travelling the right way along Barton Road at 25mph, but as he rounded a sharp bend, where it becomes Frith Road, he saw car headlights. She said: “Before he could react his vehicle was hit head on by the Proton and both airbags deployed.

“Mr Andrews said he could hear Ms Want screaming in pain. He saw her arm was hanging away in what was a very unnatural position and he called the police.”

Police arrived and Armstrong, who was slurring his speech, told an officer: “I was at fault.” He was breath-tested and six hours after his arrest was almost twice the legal limit.

Ms Want suffered multiple fractures to her left arm. She still needs physiotherapy.

Paul Hogben, defending, said Armstrong had gone out not intending to drink alcohol but later consumed so much he woke up at the flat in Tower Hamlets, east London.

He decided against sleeping in his car because of the cold weather and started to drive back to Kent, knowing he was over the limit.

“He frankly admits having a lot to drink that night and then meeting a girl,” Mr Hogben said.

“He says he still doesn’t know her name or what she looks like. He just remembers waking up in her flat.”

Judge Heather Norton jailed Armstrong and banned him from driving for 31 months, telling him he had consciously decided that night to take a risk.