Arm-break gran is hit with a drink-drive ban

BANNED . . . Susan Burridge

A GRANDMOTHER who had her arm broken by a drunken driver has been convicted.. of drink-driving.

Susan Burridge (45) of Shaw Road, Royton, was disqualified from driving for 12 months by Oldham Magistrates on Tuesday — five days after she appeared on the front page of the Chronicle calling for the drink-driver to be caught.

Last week, Mrs Burridge’s car was shunted, but when she got out to approach the driver — who smelled of drink — for insurance details, he grabbed her arm before speeding down the road, breaking her limb in four places.

After her ordeal she said: “He shouldn’t have been in the car. I want him caught.”

But speaking after her own court case, on Tuesday, she admitted she had been wrong to get in the car after drinking. She drove along Castleton Road, Royton, on September 28 while over the legal drink-drive limit, the court heard, and had 86mg of alcohol in 100 mls of blood. The legal limit is 80mg.

Mrs Burridge was fined £148 with £50 in costs.

She said: “I wasn’t supposed to be going out that night — I’d had a can of Foster’s.

“My husband had gone out to the pub with his friend, but he rang me saying I needed to come to get him because he kept blacking out.

“He had been really ill so I was worried and set out straight away — but I had a pint when I got to the pub.

“I thought it would be OK but I have a small frame and obviously I can’t drink as much as I thought.

“ I know I should have got a taxi but I was just a few points over. The guy who broke my arm was three or four times over.

“I had no intention of going in the car — it was the first time I had done it, but I was worried about my husband.”

John Burridge, her husband, died on November 30.