Driving ban for 20-year-old after spectacular drink-driving crash (From Bucks Free Press)
Send your news, photos and videos by texting bucksfreepress to 80360 or email
Driving ban for 20-year-old after spectacular drink-driving crash
5:45pm Friday 9th November 2012 in News By Neil Phillips
Driving ban for 20-year-old after spectacular drink-driving crash
A 20-YEAR-OLD was convicted of drink driving today, following a spectacular crash that saw him lose control of his car – which flew into the air, flipping, before smashing through a wall and landing in a Marlow garden.
The Peugeot 206’s 7am mid-air roll led to Eliot Nutt being breathalysed by police and today he was banned from the roads by magistrates.
CCTV footage of Nutt's crash, taken by a neighbour at the Dean Street scene, shows the "crash, bang, wallop" sequence where an approaching car brakes hard as the driver sees the Peugeot travelling at speed towards him.
Moments later, the Peugeot swerves to the nearside and the bonnet ploughs into a wall. The car then spins around, becomes airborne and flips before smashing through another wall and landing - right way up - in a front garden.
Nutt is seen inside, apparently uninjured as emergency services are called to the scene.
Today the motorist appeared before magistrates at Amersham, where he admitted a single charge of driving with excess alcohol.
The court heard that Nutt was almost twice the drink-drive limit when the crash happened in Marlow.
He told the magistrates: "I was driving some friends home from Reading who had no way of getting back and I thought I was doing them a favour.
"I thought I was okay to drive, but clearly I wasn't."
The court heard that Nutt had just dropped off his friends and was heading home at 6.50am on October 28.
"I had all the heaters on full blast and I just lost control," he said.
Andy Callander, prosecuting, told how homeowners were alerted to a loud bang outside their properties.
"The vehicle collided with the outer wall of numbers 57 and 59," he said.
"It then rolled over and landed in the garden of number 59."
Nutt failed a roadside breath test with a reading of 61mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath.
The legal limit is 35mg.
When interviewed, he told officers that he had last had a drink at 11pm the previous evening.
Nutt, of Douglas Road, Caversham, represented himself during the short hearing.
Presiding magistrate Frank Hawkins disqualified Nutt from driving for 18 months but told him that this would be reduced by four months if he completed a drink drivers' rehabilitation course by November next year.
He also fined him £110 pounds, ordered him to pay costs of £85 pounds and a £20 pounds victim surcharge.
On passing sentence Mr Hawkins said: "It is very important that you realise the offence of drink-driving is very serious and you must follow the disqualification rules."
Comments(18)
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
8:09pm Fri 9 Nov 12
gungun
says...
9:16pm Fri 9 Nov 12
Mr Totterdge Hill
says...
12:10am Sat 10 Nov 12
gungun wrote:Hear hear... don't play up to some fool knowing he's broken the law... glad nobody was killed...it could have ended up so much worse.
Spectacular? I know lets make an idiotic action seem like something amazing. BFP shame on you!
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
1:18am Sat 10 Nov 12
Mr Totterdge Hill wrote:Hopefully Mr Nut has had an agonising reappraisal of his views by now if he thought it was funny at the time.
gungun wrote:Hear hear... don't play up to some fool knowing he's broken the law... glad nobody was killed...it could have ended up so much worse.
Spectacular? I know lets make an idiotic action seem like something amazing. BFP shame on you!
This kind of behaviour when you are young is the reason middle-aged women outnumber middle-aged men. I hope Mr Nut bears that in mind and the burden of guilt and shame he would have had to bear if he had injured someone else while he was drunk.
shaky2
says...
5:56am Sat 10 Nov 12
Lividov
says...
10:29am Sat 10 Nov 12
erm
says...
8:53pm Sat 10 Nov 12
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
9:09pm Sat 10 Nov 12
erm wrote:The spelling of ‘Peugeot’ in the sentence: ‘The Peugot 206’s 7am mid-air roll …’ is interesting too.
the BFP spelling monster has struck again. "I had all the heaters on fall blast and I just lost control," he said." FULL not FALL! My oh my oh my...
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
9:33pm Sat 10 Nov 12
Lividov wrote:He didn't embark from the outset to drive or to be under the influence when he did so?
Magistrates always take the view that they didn't embark from the outset to break the law and were unaware of the consequences of their actions so are not culpable in some respect. I think they are right because the vast majority of people do not act like this.
gotanybiscuits?
says...
9:38pm Sat 10 Nov 12
erm wrote:Why would a car have more than one heater??
the BFP spelling monster has struck again. "I had all the heaters on fall blast and I just lost control," he said." FULL not FALL! My oh my oh my...
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
10:26pm Sat 10 Nov 12
The SURGEON
says...
2:47pm Sun 11 Nov 12
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
6:50pm Sun 11 Nov 12
The SURGEON wrote:I never thought I would speak in defence of BFP journos but apart from the fact that a car somersaulting into someone's front garden afetr narrowly avoiding running into another car head on obviously IS newsworthy they would be lacking in the right spirit to ignore this with the sequence of snaps.
This is hardly newsworthy. He was barely over the limit, it was the crack of dawn (so he was forced to drive) and nobody was hurt. Incidents like these should just be classed as traffic offences. Let's get some better journalism on the BFP.
It was ten to seven.
He was not far short of twice the legal limit.
Nobody was hurt by great good luck alone.
This IS newsworthy - if it had happened with a sober driver whose car had experienced a mechanical failure would you think it was not newsworthy then?
shaky2
says...
8:11am Mon 12 Nov 12
The SURGEON wrote:Perhaps if you had been anyware near this young idiot and you had been injured you might think differently or are you the type who would be screeming for compensation drinking or not this has to be very bad driving indeed and the world would be better without him on our roads
This is hardly newsworthy. He was barely over the limit, it was the crack of dawn (so he was forced to drive) and nobody was hurt. Incidents like these should just be classed as traffic offences. Let's get some better journalism on the BFP.
Me, just me
says...
12:59pm Mon 12 Nov 12
gotanybiscuits?
says...
8:02am Wed 14 Nov 12
Me, just me wrote:I imagine this picture will help him grow up faster than any licence or fine will.
It looks like he has just avoided a brick pillar going through the drivers side window and into his face...
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
11:41am Wed 14 Nov 12
gotanybiscuits? wrote:Or he will giggle proudly at it with his friends - newly proven to be a hero.
Me, just me wrote:I imagine this picture will help him grow up faster than any licence or fine will.
It looks like he has just avoided a brick pillar going through the drivers side window and into his face...
mossella6 says...
7:18pm Fri 9 Nov 12