A looming disaster

The Northern Advocate reports:

A drunk Whangarei teacher, whose erratic driving forced concerned motorists to take the keys from her car when she stopped at lights, was more than five times over the legal limit.

Five times? At least she only teaches the kids, not drives them to school.

A police summary of facts said Ash was driving on Western Hills Dr about 6.10pm on February 1 when her driving – including weaving from lane to lane and appearing confused and lost – attracted the attention of other motorists.

They were so concerned that when Ash stopped at traffic lights a motorists took the keys from her car’s ignition and called police.

Ash was unable to complete a passive roadside breath test.

Unable or unwilling? How blotto do you have to be to be unable to do a breath test?

She refused to tell police what type of alcohol, or how much, she had been drinking. The blood test recorded a level of 424 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, more than five times the legal limit of 80mg.

That is a massively high level. For a woman weighing 65 kgs, you’d need to do around 15 drinks in an hour to get that much alcohol in your blood. At that level you would be close to passing out.

Ash was sentenced to three months’ community detention, 150 hours’ community work, 15 months’ supervision and indefinitely disqualified for her third drink-driving conviction.

I wonder if that is enough. To have three actual convictions means you have probably driven drunk well over 100 times. Her level of alcohol was massive, and she seems quite unrepentant.  I fear someone is going to end up dead or injured at her hands.