Drink-drive student crashed into tree

A marine engineering cadet has been banned from the roads after he clipped another car and crashed into a tree while over the limit.

Solomon Turnbull, 20, of Linskell, Leechmere, Sunderland, touched a motorist’s wing mirror with his private registration VW Golf when she started to turn right just as he overtook, a court heard.

The incident, soon after 10pm on Friday, November 29, sent him off Queen Alexandra Road, Sunderland, and into a tree.

Police attended and Turnbull, who court heard is a student at South Tyneside College, gave a breath test reading of 61 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

He was handed a 17-month driving ban and fined £375 after he admitted a charge of drink-driving at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.

Prosecutor Lee Poppett said the motorist was driving a red Hyundai on Queen Alexandra Road.

He added: “As she starts to turn right she feels an impact on the driver’s door. “She saw what she thought was a black vehicle going past at high speed and collide with a tree. She gets out of her vehicle.

“The police arrive, and he complies and gives a breath sample. He admits going for a couple of pints. It is accepted that he was fully insured and taxed.

“When asked what had happened, he said, ‘I overtook a car, it didn’t indicate. I swerved and hit a tree’.”

Ed Jackson, defending, said: “It was a lack of judgement, he says it’s two pints. He’s clearly not usually irresponsible.”