Death-crash driver almost 3 times over limit

Deborah Downes

A WOMAN driver who was almost three times the drink-drive limit and not wearing a seatbelt died after her car crashed into a stone wall.

Deborah Downes (40), of Fox Platt Terrace, Mossley, was driving her Ford Focus late on the night of December 11, 2009, when she hit the wall at the junction of High Street and Hartshead Street, Lees. She died next day in the Royal Oldham Hospital.

Her husband, Daniel Downes, from Chadderton, told the Oldham inquest she was a lively, bubbly person.

He said she had quite a high alcohol tolerance but only drank at weekends and did not have an alcohol problem.

Toxicology analysis showed blood-alcohol levels of 219 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, just under three times the 80 milligram legal drink-drive limit.

Mrs Downes, a call-centre worker, had been with her nephew, Richard Hewitt, at JD Wetherspoon in Ashton-under-Lyne on the afternoon of December 11 and drank two halves of lager before she drove them both to The Commercial pub in Mossley. Mr Hewitt said as she had driven after drinking in the past, he intended to take her car keys that night but she promised she would get a taxi if she headed to Oldham.

She joined colleague Kadie Jo Ward at an Oldham restaurant later that evening where the woman and her boyfriend were celebrating her 18th birthday.

Miss Ward said they had a few drinks, including shots, before the three got a taxi to an Oldham club a short distance away at around 11pm. Mrs Downes left her car at the restaurant.

They had a couple of shots and half a lager each there but when Miss Ward returned from a visit to the bathroom at 11.45pm, Mrs Downes had left the venue.

Just before midnight, witnesses in High Street, Lees, heard a loud bang and saw the Focus smashed into a wall near the Red Lion Pub before dragging Mrs Downes out of the smoking vehicle.

A post-mortem examination revealed two lacerations to her liver and a fracture to the base of her skull, as well as cuts to her face, hand and left leg. The cause of death was given as multiple injuries.

Elaine Moloney, assistant coroner, gave a verdict of accidental death.