A drugged-up drink driver who left a friend with serious injuries when she smashed her mother’s Audi into flats has been told she was incredibly lucky she didn’t die.
Elizabeth Lamb reached speeds in excess of 50mph as she raced through the streets of Darlington before losing control of the car, becoming airborne and hurtling into the building.
Teesside Crown Court heard how the passenger in the car suffered broken ribs, a ruptured spleen and fractured vertebrae as a result of the impact.
The mother-of-two was threatened with a Taser before she was arrested and found to be over the limit for cocaine in her system following the crash on February 2 on Brankin Road.
Recorder Nicholas Worsley KC told her that it was only by the grace of god that her children still had a mother as he sentenced her to 16 months in custody suspended for two years.
“You took your mum’s car in the early hours and you drove it with someone else in the passenger seat when you plainly should not have been driving,” he said.
“You weren’t insured so the damage you did to the building and injury caused to your passenger are not covered by any insurance.
“You drove in such a way that you could have killed her, killed yourself and if the wall hadn’t held when you ploughed into it, you could have gone straight through the window and who knows what was on the other side of it.
“That car piled into the building; you are incredibly lucky that you didn’t die.”
He added: “You had cocaine in your system and you were drunk. Your lawyer has spoken of how you want to be a good mam to your children – it’s only by the grace of god that they still have a mam.”
Cole Cockburn, prosecuting, said Lamb had been driving at high speed when she tried to flee the police after they spotted her driving erratically in a built-up area in the Firth Moor area of Darlington.
He said: “She consistently drove at high speeds, at times exceeding 30mph and at one stage she moved into the lane of oncoming traffic before turning sharply into a side road.
“She heavily accelerated and at a bend, the Audi careered off the road, it collided with a pole and was momentarily airborne before making a forceful impact on the block of flats.”
Lamb, of Yarm Road, Middleton St George, near Darlington, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking, dangerous driving, drug driving, drink driving and driving without insurance.
Elisha Marsay, mitigating, said Lamb had turned to drugs and alcohol after escaping an abusive relationship but had already started work on addressing her issues.
“This incident was the catalyst for her being able to get help,” she said. “She has got help from her GP and is seeking help from mental health services.”
She added: “She has turned her life around in a very short space of time as a result of this incident and she has said to me today ‘you will never see me before the courts again’.”
Lamb was banned from driving for three years, ordered to attend 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days, carry out 250 hours of unpaid work and was made subject to a 120-day alcohol abstinence order.
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