(Image: Police)
A DRINK driver who crashed into a bus when she was three and a half times the legal alcohol limit lost home and job, York magistrates heard.
Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, said the bus had passengers on board when Samantha Proud, 45, hit it near the city centre and drove off.
She had been at the wheel of a parked car and as the bus drove past it, started her car engine, moved off and crashed into it.
A breath test taken after police caught up with her the same evening gave a reading of 123 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, said Mr Butterworth.
The legal limit is 35 micrograms of alcohol.
Proud pleaded guilty to drink driving in Green Dykes Lane and Cemetery Road, York, on July 18. She had no previous convictions.
Magistrates banned her from driving for 30 months, gave her a 12-month community order with 200 hours’ unpaid work and ordered her to pay £85 prosecution costs and a £114 statutory surcharge.
Defence solicitor Lee-Anne Robins-Hicks said Proud had had three or four glasses of wine with her evening meal and had not been planning on driving.
But then her adult daughter had rung her sounding in a state of panic, so Proud, in a state of panic herself, had got into her car to go to her.
The bus had been alongside her car as she pulled out.
Following her arrest, she had been asked to leave the family home.
Proud told the court she lives at Cheviot Close, Brompton near Northallerton.
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Mrs Robins-Hicks told the court Proud had also left her job as care manager for a care company because that necessitated her driving and now worked in a care home in a role that did not involve driving.
She was hoping she could get a nursing qualification.
Mr Butterworth said police were alerted immediately after the crash happened at 10pm on July 18.
Shortly afterwards they saw Proud sitting in her car with the engine running and asked her to get out.
She failed a roadside breath test and was arrested.
She had no previous convictions.
Mrs Robins-Hicks said Proud had mental health problems.
“That is perhaps the explanation why she has not thought through the consequences of her actions. She has no recollection of pulling out as the bus passed,” said the defence solicitor.
She had seen her GP since the crash and was motivated to tackle her alcohol consumption.