Driver crashed into back of lorry
SHE WAS MORE THAN FOUR TIMES OVER DRINK DRIVE LIMIT
A DRINK driver crashed into the back of a stationary vehicle while more than four times over the limit.
Louise Blake smashed her Suzuki Swift into the back of a car while its occupant waited at a junction and could “hardly walk” when she got out.
The driver of the other vehicle noticed that the 45-year-old was drunk and phoned the police, who soon attended the scene on Sandringham Drive, in Whitley Bay.
Blake failed a roadside breath test and later gave a reading of 148 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath, when the legal limit is just 35.
Blake, of Astley Road, Seaton Delaval, has now narrowly avoided jail and been banned from the roads for three years after she pleaded guilty to one count of driving with excess alcohol at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.
Prosecutor, Leanne Duffy, said Blake was travelling in her Suzuki Swift at around 2.45pm on November 18 this year when the accident happened.
She added: “The defendant collided into the rear of a vehicle, which was stationary, on Earsdon Road.
“The complainant, the driver of the other car, felt a bump from behind and it caused her car to lunge forward.
“They both pulled over and the defendant appeared drunk – she was staggering and could hardly walk.”
The court heard that the police were called and Blake was subsequently arrested after failing the breath test.
Mark Styles, mitigating, said there was a significant “back history” to the offence, which involved Blake’s domestic situation and break down of her marriage in 2013.
He said: “Her former husband has made her life a misery – he took the children, their joint business and their family home.”
Blake was given a 16-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to do 80 hours of unpaid work.