Jail for over the limit driver

A DRIVER who could have killed a couple walking in Ipswich, has been jailed.

Leon Edwards, 23, of Kingsway, Ipswich, had been drinking when he took a sharp bend in the road too fast and ploughed into a brick wall injuring a couple who happened to be walking by.

Ipswich Crown Court heard that Edwards had been to a social club before driving along Woodbridge Road towards Argyle Street in the early hours of August 5 when the accident happened.

Edwards admitted he was driving too fast along the road he knew well and that alcohol may have impaired his judgement.

The court heard that the woman, Jane Adderson, was found under the car and had suffered a broken back while her boyfriend Brian Birch had suffered minor injuries.

Judge Nicholas Beddard said: "It was a pure fluke that neither of them were killed. Had they been killed you would have been sent to prison for years rather than months."

Edwards pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol and to having no insurance. At a previous court hearing, a jury heard he had 136 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of urine. The legal limit is 107 milligrams.

A jury acquitted Edwards of dangerous driving but convicted him of careless driving.

Judge Beddard heard that Edwards was "very sorry" for his actions and that a jail term would be "catastrophic to himself and his family".

Judge Beddard said: "Four hours after the accident your urine was tested for alcohol and you were more than 25 per cent over the drink drive limit and you were not insured. Your excessive speed and lack of control were contributed to by the alcohol level."

He said the maximum prison sentence he could impose was one of six months but as he had pleaded guilty to drink driving sentence would be reduced to three months.

Edwards was disqualified from driving for two years and his licence was endorsed.