A 32-year-old woman has been jailed for dangerous driving after speeding and launching her car nearly 5 metres into the air after “crashing into a…
ADVERTISEMENTA 32-year-old woman has been jailed for dangerous driving after speeding and launching her car nearly 5 metres into the air after “crashing into a roundabout“http://metro.co.uk/2017/04/10/drunk-mum-flipped-car-14ft-after-crashing-with-baby-in-back-seat-6566151/.
The woman’s 19-month-old son was in the car at the time. Police have confirmed to euronews that he escaped without injury.
Tania Chikwature plead guilty to two charges, of dangerous driving and drunk driving. She was sentenced to 26 weeks in jail, and will pay a €120 “victim surcharge”.
At 11:40am on December 12, 2016, local police say Chikwature overtook a lorry on the wrong side of the road before she “failed to negotiate the roundabout”.
Her car landed on its roof on the opposite side of the road furniture, collided with a crash barrier, and came to a halt after sliding 50 metres down the road.
Other drivers rushed to help, and managed to pull the young child from his car seat. He was hanging upside down from his child seat when other drivers arrived.
Although Chikwature refused to submit to a roadside alcohol breath test, a blood sample was later taken, and police estimate that at the time of the crash the mother was at least three times over the legal blood-alcohol limit.
A police spokesperson said: “Chikwature showed complete disregard for the safety and welfare of her child and other road users”.
“It is pure luck that nobody was killed that day”, they added.
The driver of the lorry which Chikwature overtook before hitting the roundabout told police he thought he had witnessed a fatal crash.
He described the seen as “utter devastation”, and added that “in the 32 years I have been driving this is one of the most dangerous pieces of driving I have ever witnessed”.