Professor jailed for drink-drive crash

Paul Bailey: jailed

A SPRINGHEAD professor has been jailed for 16 months following a drink-drive crash.

Paul Bailey (56) of Stonebreaks Road, drank wine at a barbecue at the University of Huddersfield before getting behind the wheel of his Citroen last June, Leeds Crown Court heard.

A blood test later showed he was almost three times over the legal limit.

The research fellow crashed head on with another motorist in Manchester Road, Marsden, after swerving over the central white lines several times.

On a bend he veered over the white lines at up to 60mph and hit the offside pavement, then careered head-on into a Honda car, trapping 49-year-old driver Christopher Parr inside.

Mr Parr was freed by fire crews then airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary, where he spent a week on a trauma ward with seven fractured ribs, a fractured breast bone, a broken shinbone and ligament damage to his knee.

Mark Fireman, defending, said Bailey had planned to spend the night with a friend in Huddersfield and had no memory of the crash.

Bailey, who was also disqualified from driving for five years, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving over the prescribed limit.