Drunk coach driver jailed (From Halesowen News)

Drunk coach driver jailed

12:47pm Tuesday 24th June 2008 in News

A former Halesowen coach driver who overturned his vehicle, injuring 25 people, has been jailed after admitting being drunk at the wheel.

A judge heard Leslie Weinberg, formerly of Nimmings Road, was driving on the M1 motorway when the coach rolled over on a bend.

He slammed the Scania vehicle into a kerb, making it fly into the air, before it landed on its side and hit a lamp post and a tree.

The 35-year-old was nearly twice over the drink-drive limit and thought he was taking a motorway exit.

Jailing him for 10 months at Aylesbury Crown Court, Judge Christopher Tyrer told Weinberg he had "betrayed the confidence and trust" of his passengers.

National Express service 777, from Birmingham to London Stansted Airport, had 33 passengers on board when it headed along the motorway on September 3 last year.

As it approached the service station at Newport Pagnell, Bucks, the coach, which had been overtaking a lorry, suddenly veered across to the side of the carriageway and careered up the slip road.

Prosecutor Alan Blake told Judge Tyrer, sitting at Aylesbury Crown Court: "The speed the coach was travelling at was far too fast for the bend.

"Passengers recalled screaming as they realised the bus was not going to be able to negotiate the bend."

He described how the coach then began sliding sideways before it was on two wheels and hitting the raised kerb.

He said: "People recalled the sensation of the coach becoming airborne."

As the coach slammed into the ground most passengers were saved from serious injury by their seatbelts, although several sustained broken limbs.

Christopher Rusbridge, who was not restrained, broke bones in his head, chest, arms and legs and had the skin completely stripped off one arm as it dragged along the ground.

Weinberg himself was trapped in his seat for nearly an hour and had to be cut free by firefighters.

Despite bleeding heavily and having diesel fuel leaking onto him, he told the first person to arrive at the scene "save the passengers."

He admitted to rescuers he thought he had been turning onto the slip road at junction 14 of the motorway.

When they heard this and smelled alcohol on his breath he was given a roadside test, which proved positive.

Judge Tyrer was told that back calculations from a later blood-alcohol test estimated at the time of the crash Weinberg would have had a reading of around 145mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 80mg.

More than 100 emergency service staff were called to the crash scene and the slip road, which was closed for 48 hours, had to be resurfaced.

Police charged Weinberg with drink driving and dangerous driving. He admitted both charges at his first appearance at Aylesbury Crown Court, Bucks., on April 14.

Simon Davis, defending, said in mitigation that his client was genuinely remorseful and ashamed of what he had done and that his actions had been out of character.

The father, who also has a disabled wife, had had a troubled past after being put into care at an early age and being contacted a month before the crash by someone falsely claiming to be his father, he said.

Addressing troubles in Weinberg's life, Mr Davis said: "It is quite clear that on occasions he has had difficulty in coming to terms with those matters and he buries himself in drink."

He also admitted the defendant, who had temporarily split up from his wife because of the crash, had been drinking until 5am on the morning of the crash.

Judge Tyrer told the defendant: "You were a public service vehicle driver, entrusted by a well-known national company, to drive passengers from one place to another safely.

"You drove a substantial vehicle capable of sustained speeds and looked after professionally by that national company.

"In this instance, the weak link was you."

Describing the accident as "terrifying and horrifying", the judge said the case had a plain message.

"Those who are entrusted with the welfare of the public must be people in whom the public are entitled to bestow their confidence.

"You betrayed that confidence as you betrayed that trust."

For dangerous driving the judge jailed Weinberg for 10 months and disqualified him from driving for four years.

For drink driving he imposed a £500 pounds fine or an alternative of 14 days imprisonment, to run concurrently with the 10 month term.

He also imposed a concurrent two-year driving ban for the drink-driving.

The defendant, who had been suspended by National Express following the accident, was sacked by the firm in December.

Weinberg, of Meadow Avenue, West Bromwich, and formerly of Meyrick Road, in the same town, showed no emotion as he was led to the cells.

Outside the court, senior investigating officer Inspector Bob Jarrett welcomed the prison sentence, saying: "Drinking and driving is a crime. There can be no excuses.

"If you do it you risk your licence, you job and your liberty."

He added: "Thankfully and probably due to nothing more than good luck, no-one died as a result of this collision.

"The outcome could have been much, much worse."