Drunken driver smashed head-on into mum and daughter's car on Leeds road on way to buy more booze
A drunken driver smashed head-on into a mother and daughter’s car as he went to buy more alcohol, then tried to flee the scene of carnage.
Bogdan Ungurasu crashed his white Audi into woman’s car in Wortley. She was driving with her six-year-old daughter in the backseat.
Despite airbags being deployed, the woman was left requiring surgery on a double fracture to her arm, while the youngster was luckily unharmed.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Ungurasu was so drunk that he had to be stopped from lighting a cigarette next the wreckage of the car where pools of petrol had spilled onto the road.
The 36-year-old admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was jailed for 30 months, with the judge describing his actions as “utter contempt”.
Prosecutor Antonia Adie said Ungurasu’s car careered into the path of the oncoming car on Lower Wortley Road on April 2 last year, at around 4.30pm.
He was driving too fast and hit the woman’s car with such ferocity is sent it backwards, spinning into a garden wall.
Members of the public then intervened to prevent him from leaving the scene as the emergency services were called.
He was given a breath test and was found to have 75mcgs of alcohol in 100mls of breath. The legal limit is 35mcgs. He was also banned from driving at the time.
The victim was taken to hospital with the double arm fracture and required screws and plates to be inserted.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the woman said she still has numbness to her hand which may never recover because of the nerve damage. She is also considering giving up driving for good.
Ungurasu, of Claremont Terrace, Armley, gave a voluntary interview to police in July of last year but provided no comments.
He has eight previous convictions for 18 offences, including drink driving, driving without a licence and driving while banned.
Mitigating, Shannon Woodley said: “He is extremely remorseful about what he did. He remembers drinking that morning, then left in his car to buy more alcohol.
“He drove too fast and veered onto the wrong side of the road. He is completely ashamed of himself and and takes full responsibility for what happened.”
She said he worked full-time for drinks giant Coca-Cola, has three children in Romania and helps to pay for his daughter’s university education.
Judge Robin Mairs said that Ungurasu had an “extensive criminal career” in Italy and had been jailed before. He said he had acquired an appalling record for driving offences since arriving in the UK.
Referring to the crash, he told him: “You decided to drive while you were drunk. It was no accident, it was a product of your decision.
“The reason you were prepared to risk catastrophic injury or loss of life was to buy more alcohol.
“It was her misfortune that her path crossed yours that afternoon.”
He banned him from driving for five years and three months.