A research fellow at the University of Huddersfield has been jailed for 16 months after he crashed head on into another motorist, causing him serious injuries, while nearly three times over the drink-drive limit.

Scientist Paul Bailey got behind the wheel of his Citroen after having a drink at lunchtime before downing wine at a barbecue at the university on June 7 last year, Leeds Crown Court was told.

A witness was so concerned by his erratic driving before the collision in Manchester Road, Marsden, Huddersfield that he had deliberately kept his vehicle back as he was following him, said Brian Outhwaite prosecuting.

He saw Bailey swerve and twice cross the double white line in the centre of the road before veering back on to his own side.

Then as he approached a left hand bend at an estimated 60mph he swerved again across the solid white lines and collided with the offside pavement narrowly avoiding chevron signs.

The witness said the driver was “fighting with the car” which had wheels on the pavement and debris flying before it struck a Honda car head on.

The occupant of that car, 49-year-old musician Christopher Parr was trapped in his vehicle and had to be cut free by firemen before he was flown by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary

He spent the next seven days in the trauma ward with seven fractured ribs, a fractured breast bone, a broken shinbone and ligament damage to his right knee.

Mr Outhwaite said Mr Parr had to use a brace for his knee for some time afterwards and receive physiotherapy at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. Weeks later he was still in pain using crutches and a Zimmer frame to get about and unable to work.

That had led to a severe drop in his income when he could receive only sick pay. He could also not play in a band called, State of Confusion. “Our lives have been turned upside down,” he said.

Bailey also had to be freed from his vehicle and was taken to hospital with bruising and a broken rib. A blood test subsequently showed he had 232 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, nearly three times the limit of 80.

He told officers he regularly drove on the road and had planned to stay the night with a friend in Huddersfield and not drive.

Mark Fireman representing Bailey said he did not remember the crash and did not now know why he had decided to go home.

He had spent two days in hospital following the crash. He was a man who had suffered from depression in his life and had a drinking problem but had always been careful to keep driving and drinking apart.

A custodial sentence would have a devastating impact on his family and also affect the university since his research project was part of a move to teach physics there.

“This is a man with a good deal to lose, until this point he has been a respectable member of the public working in a rarefied area and a good husband.”

Bailey, 56 of Stonebreaks Road, Oldham, admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving over the prescribed limit.

Jailing him and disqualifying him from driving for five years, the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC said for whatever reason having abandoned his plans to stay with a friend in Huddersfield he was clearly “not in control of the car.”

“You had taken drink, you drove your car some distance and it must have been apparent you were having some difficulties controlling the car although I understand you have no recollection now of what happened after you got into the vehicle.”

Having admitted “a relatively new offence” involving the causing of serious injuries his culpability was high.