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Councillor's wife was twice drink-drive limit
A Peterborough City Councillor's wife seriously injured in a car crash after driving the wrong way along a Peterborough parkway may have been attempting to take her own life, a court heard.
A Peterborough City Councillor's wife seriously injured in a car crash after driving the wrong way along a Peterborough parkway may have been attempting to take her own life, a court heard.Care worker Dawn Collins was two-and-a-half times the legal drink-drive limit when her silver Ford Escort ploughed head-on into another car on the A1139 Fletton Parkway in March.
The 42-year-old – whose husband is East ward councillor Mark Collins – was warned by a judge she faces jail after she admitted charges of dangerous driving and driving with excess alcohol in her blood.
But she will not be sentenced for the offences until next month after Peterborough Crown Court heard there may be serious mental health problems at the root of her behaviour.
Collins's barrister, Nick Hoffman, said: "This is the first time Mrs Collins has been in front of any court, let alone a crown court, and she has been convicted of a very serious piece of bad driving.
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"On the face of it, this may have been a deliberate attempt to injure herself, perhaps fatally. Someone doing that (driving the wrong way along a dual-carriageway) is unlikely to do so by mistake and is likely to have other things on their mind."
There were chaotic scenes on the westbound A1139 between the junction for the Hamptons and the Ikea roundabout when the crash happened at about 8.30pm on Saturday, March 7, closing the road for six hours.
Police received a number of calls from drivers reporting Collins's car being driven on the wrong side of the road before it eventually smashed into a silver Mazda 6 and a lorry.
Firefighters used cutting equipment to free Collins from the mangled wreckage of her vehicle and she was hospitalised with multiple injuries including a broken pelvis and a fractured knee and elbow.
Speaking to The Evening Telegraph as his wife of 21 years recovered in hospital, Cllr Collins said he knew nothing of the collision until police came knocking on his door in Whitacre, Parnwell, with the news.
Collins, who has two grown-up children with her husband, was walking unaided, but with a limp, when she arrived at court yesterday for what had been listed as a sentencing hearing.
She had pleaded guilty to the offences at Peterborough Magistrates' Court in May.
Judge Sean Enright adjourned the case until Thursday, August 6, to allow psychiatric reports to be prepared and freed the defendant on bail.
He said: "I make it plain that I'm in no way extending the prospect of a non-custodial sentence."
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