A BOOZED-UP Coatbridge motorist cheated death when she crashed her car while more than four times the legal limit.
Clare Broadley, 32, of Craigmore Place, was driving at nearly 60mph with a tyre “disintegrated” when she lost control and crashed into the central reservation on the A737 near Linwood, after almost pranging another vehicle.
Paisley Sheriff Court heard Broadley, a civil servant, walked away after she swerved, crashed and spun her Renault Clio 360 degrees around, in the late night horror smash on the carriageway on May 24.
Procurator fiscal depute Maureen McGovern told the court: “A motorist travelling on the carriageway past Kilbarchan noticed the accused overtaking him in lane two before moving back in to lane one.
“The witness closed the gap and was doing 57mph when he noticed the vehicle in front began to swerve and decided to pass it by.
“As he passed the car, he saw the accused’s tyre had been blown out.
“The tyre had disintegrated and the female who was driving appeared to be slumped at the steering wheel.
“As he was overtaking the vehicle, her vehicle swerved towards his car.
“He passed her but the accused’s car hit the central reservation causing the car to spin 360 degrees around.”
The court heard the witness left the road at Linwood to report the crash, turned his car around and went to check on Broadley.
She declined medical attention, and was found an in “emotional state” and slurring her words.
However, when spoken to by police, Broadley immediately owned up to drinking and driving, admitting she had been drinking only two hours before.
Broadley pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while the proportion of alcohol was 95 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath, and the legal limit is 22 micrograms.
Defence agent Kevin Brady told how Broadley had decided to drive home late at night after fleeing from a fight with her ex-boyfriend.
He said: “She had been at her ex-partner’s parents’ house.
“There had been a threat made to her which is why she fled immediately.
“She acknowledges she should not have driven back home and told police immediately about what she had been doing and has offered her early plea of guilty.”
He said she realises she would lose her driving licence and would face difficulties in getting to and from her place of work.
Sheriff Lindsey Kooner told Broadley, who stood with her head bowed in the dock, that she could see she was “taking this matter very seriously, driving in the condition you were in.”
She banned her from driving for 18 months and fined her £450.
She also advised Broadley to pass the extended test of competency before getting behind the wheel again.
