Drink-drive gran in head-on crash
74-YEAR-OLD DRINKING AT WHEEL AND NEARLY TWICE THE LIMIT
A 74-YEAR-OLD grandmother who was drinking alcohol while out driving crashed into an oncoming car.
Jane Southwell was nearly twice the limit when she drove at 30mph in Braybrooke Road near Market Harborough – a 60mph stretch.
After a sharp turn, Southwell veered into the oncoming lane and a motorist heading in the opposite direction was unable to avoid her.
The collision was serious enough to cause the airbags in Southwell’s Dacia Duster to deploy and the man in the other car suffered bruising.
At Leicester Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, Southwell, of St Nicholas Close, Market Harborough, pleaded guilty to drink-driving.
Describing the incident, at 4pm on September 1, prosecutor Sukhy Basi said: “A witness was following behind a blue vehicle and, despite the speed limit being higher, the vehicle was driving at 30mph.
“As it overtook a cyclist it swerved to the left on to the grass verge and then returned to the carriageway.
“The vehicle took a sharp left bend and swerved on to the wrong side of the road and remained on the wrong side, where it collided with another vehicle.”
Police noticed Southwell’s eyes were glazed. A blood sample showed a reading of 155 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80 milligrammes.
Ishtiaq Sarwar, representing Southwell, told the court: “She is very remorseful and embarrassed.
“She had a little to drink in the car but she believed she was not above the legal limit. She is grateful no one was seriously injured.”
He said his client was feeling lonely and depressed having recently stopped working and “believes she is of no use to anyone any more”.
Chairman of the bench Stephen Bryan told Southwell: “The level of alcohol in your system was nearly double the minimum allowed.
“There’s evidence of an unacceptable standard of driving and then you were involved in a head-on collision with another vehicle.”
Southwell was banned from driving for 22 months, fined £166 and ordered to pay £85 court costs and a £32 victim surcharge.