Mum Caught Drink Driving with Kids Gets Suspended Jail Sentence

A mum caught drink driving with three kids in the back seat was given a suspended jail sentence after admitting she did it because her adult passenger was scared of driving on highways.

Donna Maria Gardiner, 43, from Moss Vale, New South Wales, was caught drink driving at almost four-times the legal limit on the Hume Highway on June 19 this year with three girls — one nine-year-old and two 11-year-olds — in the back seat, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Ms Gardiner was driving the woman she was with and the three girls to an event when she was pulled over by police after doing an illegal U-turn.

Police did an initial roadside breath test which showed that Ms Gardiner had alcohol in her system. The mother failed six times to produce a sufficient breath test and was taken to Liverpool police station, where she blew the reading of 0.183.

The Liverpool Local Court heard that Ms Gardiner confessed to drinking six glasses of wine the night before, but took the wheel because the other woman had a ‘phobia’ of driving on highways.

In sentencing, Magistrate Shane McAnulty said he understood that Ms Gardiner did not intend to drink that much and put the lives of her passengers at risk. He also heard that Ms Gardiner has been shunned by most of her community after the incident, getting ‘sarcastic text messages’ from locals and was also no longer in contact with her brother.

Ms Gardiner was remorseful, sobbing in the docks as her sentence was handed down on Monday. She was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence and was suspended from driving for nine months for her high-range offence. She also must have an interlock fitted for two years on her vehicle.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk and Dailytelegraph.com.au