Unconscious drink-driver was four times over limit seven hours after being found by police
A drink-driver discovered unconscious at the wheel before giving a blood alcohol reading more than four times the legal limit seven hours after first being found by officers has narrowly avoided jail.
Inderpal Singh was given a suspended prison sentence after he admitted being in charge of a car while over the drink-drive limit.
Police were called to Clock Tower Roundabout, in Donnington, Telford, at around 4pm on February 8, 2022, after receiving reports than an Audi was stationary and blocking part of both the A518 and roundabout.
Officers arrived to find the 50-year-old in the driver's seat unconscious and unresponsive but breathing, noting that the vehicle's ignition was on with the dash lights illuminated.
Once they got the car door open, Singh, of Chalice Close in Muxton, Telford, was found to be intoxicated with two empty whiskey bottles in the passenger footwell.
Officers called for an ambulance shortly afterwards but one didn't arrive for nearly three hours. Medics took Singh to Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital where a doctor gave consent for a blood sample to be taken.
The blood taken at around 11pm, seven hours after police first arrived at the scene, revealed he still had 356 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, more than four times the legal limit of 80 milligrammes.
At Telford Magistrates Court on April 13, the court ruled his offence was so serious that "only a custodial sentence can be justified", detailing previous convictions and a high alcohol reading as the reasons.
Singh, who was also banned from driving for three years, and ordered to take a drink drive rehabilitation course, must also pay £135 costs and a £128 surcharge.
Explaining why an ambulance took nearly three hours to arrive, a spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: “At the time of the call the whole of the NHS was under severe pressure and unfortunately, long hospital delays meant some patients were waiting far longer for an ambulance to arrive than we would have wanted, for which we apologise.
“We received a call to a medical emergency on the A518 in Donnington at 3.56pm on 8th February 2022. An ambulance arrived on the scene at 6.47pm. We treated one patient, a man, before he was taken to New Cross Hospital for further assessment.”
