Woman ‘lucky’ to hit tree not person

A woman is lucky to be alive, and lucky to have not killed anyone, after crashing her car while nearly five times the drink-drive limit.

Debbie Marie Te Whatu had to be wheeled into the Palmerston North District Court yesterday, one arm and one leg in casts, to plead guilty to drink-driving.

The incident happened on October 28 while she was driving on Kaimanawa Rd, where she crashed a car into a tree.

Blood taken from Te Whatu came back with a result of 248 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 50mg.

Defence lawyer William Kronast said Te Whatu had been drinking at a property but needed to get away after a ‘‘tense encounter’’ she wanted to de-escalate.

What happened next was predicable given how much alcohol Te Whatu had on board, he said.

Her substantial injuries, while a consequence of the offending on their own, meant she was likely to be off work until February. Her car was also written off, Kronast said.

Judge Jonathan Krebs said it was unfortunate Te Whatu was unable to work and that she suffered such serious injuries. ‘‘You are lucky you didn’t kill yourself.’’

She was also lucky she did not crash into someone else, the judge said.

Te Whatu was fined $850 and ordered to pay analysis costs.

She was also disqualified from driving for 28 days and must sign up to the alcohol interlock regime if she wants to drive afterwards.