Drunk woman was four times over limit

A Masterton drunk driver, who was nearly four times the legal limit when she crashed with her young son  in the vehicle, has been given a relatively lenient sentence by a judge on the grounds that media attention was punishment in itself.
"The impact on you of having been charged is that much greater because the attention from the media carries a greater penalty in a small community.
"It's surprising to me that they focus on you when I have much greater drink drivers who are not subject to media publicity," Judge Stephen Harrop told mother-of-three Vanessa Francine Bidlake, 38, yesterday while sentencing her on one count each of excess breath alcohol and careless driving.
"Because of that, I will impose a lesser penalty than if there hadn't been such publicity," he said.
He said the media focus on Bidlake showed an "odd sense of priority" given no requests had been made to photograph other drink drivers - some recidivist - who had been through Masterton District Court yesterday.
Judge Harrop's comments came despite the fact that he had lifted name suppression for Bidlake and granted still photography requests for two media organisations at yesterday's hearing.
The charges were laid after Bidlake was spotted by a concerned motorist driving erratically on East Taratahi Rd about 6.30pm on May 13.
Shortly afterwards she veered off a straight section of the road, through a fence, crashed through trees and came to a stop on a power pole stay cable.
Both she and her son escaped the crash unharmed. When breathalysed she blew 1594mcg of alcohol per litre of breath. The legal limit is 400mcg.
Bidlake later told police she had a drinking problem and was getting counselling.
Bidlake's lawyer conceded that interest in the case had come due to the "appallingly high" alcohol reading and said "she fully accepts this was a terrible thing to do". Judge Harrop praised Bidlake, a first-time offender, for her early guilty plea and said the incident had acted as a "wake-up call".
"Obviously this is a situation where you could have been injured or killed - and that applies to your son and other road users, of course," he said.
Bidlake was disqualified from driving for nine months and sentenced to nine months' intensive supervision and 60 hours' community work.