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Drink-driver was texting at wheel
A FORMER South Tyneside bar boss has been banned from driving after she rammed a young family off the road while drunk behind the wheel.
Magistrates were also told Diane Douglas was using her mobile phone to send a text message when she caused the crash as she drove back from a party at the New Mill pub in South Shields, to mark her last night as bar manager.
And despite her own car being badly damaged, 52-year-old Douglas drove off with smoke coming out of the bonnet.
Douglas was banned from driving but spared jail after she was found guilty of dangerous driving, failing to stop after an accident, failing to report an accident and driving under the influence of alcohol.
She had denied all charges.
South East Northumberland Magistrates heard how Douglas smashed into the back of the car, being driven by mum-of-two Gemma Thorpe, on the A19 last August, after downing two glasses of homemade punch.
Miss Thorpe, who had her five-year-old daughter in the front passenger seat and her four-month-old baby in the back, was left "petrified" when Douglas crashed into her.
But Douglas – who the court heard doesn't usually drink – sped off, leaving Miss Thorpe to pull her two children from the wrecked car at the side of the road.
Magistrates were told the family suffered minor injuries, including bruising from the impact of the seatbelts.
Douglas was arrested within minutes of the crash and failed a roadside breath test when officers stopped her near Annitsford, North Tyneside.
The test revealed she had 55 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
The legal limit is 35.
Douglas told the court she drank two glasses of a cocktail containing whisky and gin at the pub in Chesterton Road, Biddick Hall, before attempting to drive home to smooth over a row with her boyfriend.
Douglas, of Mayfield Avenue, Cramlington, Northumberland, was sentenced to six weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, with a 12-month supervision order.
She was banned from driving for 15 months and ordered to pay costs of 310.
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Weather for South Shields
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South
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Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 3 C
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