A drink driver from Suffolk who crashed into a lorry with children in her car earned herself a year in prison, four years' driving ban, an extended driving test and about ten years' worth of expensive car insurance for women.
Caroline Fletcher, 28, was attempting to make the journey from her home town of Felixstowe to a local Tesco store, 10 miles away.
Ipswich Crown Court heard she had been up drinking all the previous night, and was still over four times the legal alcohol limit when she set off. Witnesses to Fletcher's driving that morning said she was weaving all over the road, as though a child was at the wheel.
Soon even Fletcher realised she was putting herself and her young passengers in danger, and she decided to pull off the road into a lay-by. It was at this point that she ploughed into the back of a parked lorry.
Seeing the distressed children, who were screaming and trying to escape from the wrecked vehicle, a passing delivery driver freed them and called the police. Soon after he had to pull the still helplessly inebriated Fletcher to safety as she was wandering back towards the busy carriageway.
The children were taken to hospital where they were treated for cuts and bruises, and friction burns from the car seatbelts.
Fletcher pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving with excess alcohol. Motor insurance firms take an extremely dim view of both these crimes, and she can expect whopping quotes on car insurance for women in the future.