Kings Heath mum jailed on drunk hit and run charge
August 22 2011
A four by four driver “half out of her mind with drugs and alcohol” seriously injured a private hire driver and his four passengers when she ploughed head-on into them.
Mother-of-three Nichola Martin was the only one who was not badly hurt in the crash in Solihull Lodge High Street in the early hours of January 9.
The 30-year-old of Kingsthorpe Road, Kings Heath fled the scene after locking her Daewoo Koranda.
She was still almost double the legal alcohol limit when she was traced to her home three hours later, Warwick Crown Court has heard.
She was later caught driving her children to school, despite being given an interim ban after she pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while unfit through drink or drugs and failing to stop after an accident.
Martin, whose husband was in the army, was jailed for 18 months.
Prosecutor Tim Pole said Martin lost control and hit a car parked on her side of the road and then veered onto the wrong side of the road, head-on into the private hire vehicle driven by Keith Towler.
She then continued along the road, hitting two other parked cars before she stopped, got out of her 4x4 and locked it before fleeing from the scene.
Mr Pole said Mr Towler had four broken ribs and a spinal fracture to his neck.
He has been unable to work and had to have a bathroom installed downstairs.
Of his passengers, 81-year-old Ronald Green had three broken ribs, a punctured lung and deep cuts to his shins, while his 73-year-old wife Dorothy Green had a fracture to her spine, three broken ribs, fractured sternum, fluid on her lungs and a broken leg.
Their daughter Alison Ireland, aged 45, had a three-inch wound to her knee and a dislocated knee, and her partner had a fractured sternum and broken nose.
Sophie Murray, defending, said Martin had become involved with people who were regularly drinking, and introduced her to drugs, while her husband was away in the army, which he has since left.
Jailing Martin, Recorder Christopher Goodchild told her: “In terms of three other people, you have changed unalterably their lives by an act of really dangerous driving when you were half out of your mind with drugs and alcohol.
“I cannot ignore the fact that a couple of days after you had been suspended from driving, you went and drove again.”
Source; http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top- ... -29277600/
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