Drunk driver jailed after reversing into police car - The Leamington Observer

Drunk driver jailed after reversing into police car

Leamington Editorial 15th Mar, 2017   0

A DRUNKEN driver from Warwick reversed into a police car after racing through a built-up area and overtaking on the wrong side of the road at 70mph in thick fog.

Ryan Wood had decided to drive home after leaving a night club in the early hours of the morning – despite being warned not to get behind the wheel, a judge at Warwick Crown Court has heard.

The 28 year-old of Turberville Place, was jailed for eight months and banned from driving for five years after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and failing to provide a specimen.

Prosecutor Lee Marklew said on December 30 Wood went out in Leamington, and left a night club in the town in the early hours of the following morning.




Despite being clearly drunk, he made it plain to the door staff that he was planning to drive home to Warwick, so they responsibly notified the police.

When officers found him sitting in his car nearby, they warned him not to drive, and he said he wold not.


But at just after 2am Wood drove away, and he was next seen a couple of miles away going over a bridge in Emscote Road at 70mph.

There was dense fog, and he was on the wrong side of the road overtaking another vehicle, and officers lost track of him because of the weather.

They caught up with him some distance away, and after getting him to stop, they pulled up behind him.

But as the officers were getting out of the police car, Wood reversed into it, causing the open door to clip one of them to his shoulder, leaving him with bruising.

Wood was arrested during which he swore at the officers – and at the police station he refused to take a breath test or to be interviewed about his driving.

Mr Marklew added that Wood was convicted of driving with excess alcohol in 2010, and in 2013 had been disqualified for 40 months for driving while unfit through drink or drugs, only getting his licence back in September last year.

Sean Logan, defending, said Wood was well thought of in his trade of ‘high-end carpentry,’ earning up to 40,000 a year.

He added Wood’s behaviour had been out of character, and he had mislaid tablets he was on for anxiety and depression, and had been unable to get any more because of the holiday period, so had been without his medication for a few days at the time of the offence.

Jailing Wood, Recorder Roger Evans told him: “I am afraid the public of Leamington and Warwick cannot be expected, on foggy winter nights, to meet people, drunk, driving cars far too fast on the wrong side of the road.”

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