A drink driving NHS worker crashed her car on a roundabout in Swindon having nearly completed a lengthy trip home, a court heard.
Crown prosecutor Keith Ballinger told Swindon Magistrates’ Court that hospital discharge coordinator Priya Sundhir ended up “some distance off the road” having lost control of her Renault Clio on Valentine’s Day this year.
The 24-year-old defendant, of Victoria Road, told the responding police officers that she had been rowing with her then-boyfriend at his address in Bristol.
As a result, she took the decision to embark on the 40-mile-long drive home despite having consumed a number of glasses of wine.
Officers attending the scene, on the Coate Water Roundabout in Marlborough Road, conducted a roadside breath test. The result was positive and she was taken to custody.
At the police station, on an evidential breathalyser machine, Sundhir blew a reading of 87 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.
Gordon Hotson, defending, said his client intended to stay at her then-partner’s home overnight, and had taken her work laptop with her. But due to the tense and uncomfortable atmosphere following an argument, she left.
Sundhir’s options of places to go were limited due to the pandemic, he told the court. Adding that she decided to drive home.
He said she’d misjudged her speed, taking the roundabout too fast – resulting in the collision, which wiped out some road furniture.
The defendant is no longer with her boyfriend and remains in her NHS role.
“She was fleeing an uncomfortable situation”, Mr Hotson said. “It was a foolish decision.”
District judge Joanna Dickens imposed a 20-month driving disqualification, fined her £350 and ordered her to pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £35.
“You present a huge risk to other road users… on this occasion there was an accident… you’re really lucky it did not involve serious injury or death to anyone else”, she commented.
