Dad Adam Whitehead drove with children in car when 5 times over drink limit
Jul 27 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner
A DRUNKEN father nearly five times over the drink-drive limit didn’t realise his car was on fire as he drove through Huddersfield with his children.
When Adam Craig Whitehead stopped in a traffic queue, other motorists managed to pull his three young children out of the car to safety, before he drove on.
But yesterday, Huddersfield magistrates spared him jail and sentenced him to 16 weeks in prison, suspended for two years.
Whitehead, 36, of Norcross Avenue in Oakes, was banned from driving for 36 months, handed a bill for £85 costs, and ordered to do 60 hours unpaid work.
He pleaded guilty to drink driving and part of his sentence will be an alcohol treatment requirement.
Tests showed he had 162 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – the limit is 35.
The court heard how the father-of-three had drunk a bottle of vodka the night before getting behind the wheel on June 19.
One of his children was in the passenger seat and two were in the back as he drove to meet a friend in Milnsbridge.
Carole Lawford, prosecuting, said a woman driving behind Whitehead’s car noticed black smoke billowing from his green Fiat.
The woman sounded her horn to get Whitehead’s attention, but he didn’t stop as he drove along Longwood Road in Paddock.
