Mother cleared of drink-driving after using vodka ‘to calm nerves’
AN ACCOUNTANT who tested almost four times the legal alcohol limit following a car crash has been cleared of drink-driving after claiming she “necked” vodka to steady her nerves.
Kelsey Ridings, 26, crashed her Mercedes car with her four children inside into another car but left the scene after exchanging details with the other driver before police could attend.
Officers traced her to her home at Mottram near Hyde, Greater Manchester, an hour later where an initial breath test showed she had 124 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
Ridings was cleared of any wrongdoing after Tameside magistrates heard she consumed two pints containing vodka in just 15 minutes at a friend’s house to “calm herself down”.
Ridings celebrated after magistrates delivered a not guilty verdict.
Her acquittal came despite magistrates suggesting her account was “often confused and misleading”.
On May 6 Ridings’ C250 car hit a Peugeot 308 being driven by Carl Kidd as he took his heavily pregnant partner to see his parents. He told the court Ridings “appeared to be intoxicated” and was “slurring” her words.
He told the hearing: “She was well over on my side of the road and she was coming at speed. I steered away to avoid a head-on collision but she caught the back end of my car. I made sure my partner was OK then went over to confront her … She got out and abruptly walked over to my car. I said, ‘Look what you have done’, and asked for her insurance details but she offered me £1,000 to not go through the insurance.”
Police arrived at Ridings’ home an hour after the crash. After being tested at almost four times the limit she took a second test which showed she had 82mg in breath.
Ridings told the hearing she left the scene and drove to her friend Paige Azad’s house because “other cars were beeping” and her children were “screaming”, as she accused Mr Kidd of acting “aggressively” towards her.
She said: “At Paige’s I was panicking and asked her to get me a strong drink. I just needed to calm my nerves and I stood outside her house having a glass of vodka which was more or less neat and I then necked it then had another one whilst I was getting the kids out of my car and into my friend’s van.”
Breaking down in tears, she added: “They were incredibly strong drinks. I had not had a drink before it.”
Ridings was cleared of any wrongdoing. After prosecutors questioned the verdict, magistrates responded: “We believe the Crown’s case has not been proved beyond all reasonable doubt. We are not prepared to go into it any more.”