A Fairy Meadow driver busted drink-driving after a minor collision near a primary school was so intoxicated behind the wheel she twice crossed onto the wrong side of the road and almost hit an oncoming car, a court has heard.
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Police said Laura Alece Marceau had slurred speech, was unsteady on her feet, struggled to keep her eyes open and had trouble lifting her head when talking to highway patrol officers who pulled her red Mazda 3 over on Storey Street at East Corrimal on the afternoon of October 20 this year.
A subsequent breath analysis returned a reading of 0.337 - more than six times the legal alcohol limit.
Marceau was arrested and charged with high-range drink-driving.
She pleaded guilty to the charge in Wollongong Local Court on Tuesday.
A set of agreed facts said a taxi was idling behind Marceau's vehicle at a set of traffic lights on Daisy Street when her vehicle rolled backwards, hitting the taxi's bumper.
Marceau then drove forward, turning right into Elliotts Road. The court heard officers in a fully marked highway patrol car stopped at the same intersection saw Marceau's vehicle cross to the wrong side of the roadway and travel east in the westbound lane over the railway overpass, narrowly avoiding a collision with an oncoming vehicle.
The officers followed Marceau, pulling her over as she turned into Storey Street.
She was arrested and taken to Corrimal Police Station where she charged.
Marceau told police she'd drunk four glasses of vodka, lime and soda between midday and 3.15pm at the Corrimal Bowling Club before getting behind the wheel and driving.
"Police are of the opinion that the accused was heavily affected by intoxicating liquor and it's extremely lucky that the accused only had one minor accident on her path from the Corrimal Bowling Club to where police stopped her," the arresting officers wrote in the agreed facts, adding that they believe Marceau had driven past Fairy Meadow Demonstration School during an operating school zone time on her route home.
In court on Tuesday, Magistrate Gabriel Fleming said the threshold for a jail sentence had been crossed, but agreed to have Marceau assessed for a 14-month home detention and community service work order.
The matter will return to court on January 18.
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