Drink driver ‘narrowly missed pedestrians’ in kerb crash

The drink driver took his father’s car without permission

A drink driver took his father’s car without permission, crashed the car into a kerb “narrowly missing pedestrians”, according to Cambridgeshire Police. Haygen Norman, 20, was more than three times the legal limit when he took the Volkswagen Touran from his family home on Thursday, April 16.

He took the car from his family home in Harvey Goodwin Avenue, Cambridge, at about 9.30pm. Norman’s father contacted police and officers found him in King Hedges Road, where he had crashed into a kerb, narrowly avoiding pedestrians. The force of the collision had caused a tyre to come off one of the car’s front wheels.

PC Doug McColm, who investigated, said: “Norman not only took his father’s car without permission, but drove it while heavily under the influence of alcohol and it was only luck that he did not seriously injure a pedestrian or worse.”

Norman was arrested and failed a roadside breath test with a reading of more than three times the legal limit. The 20-year-old pleaded guilty to drink driving, driving whilst disqualified, without insurance and aggravated vehicle taking at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on Monday, June 19.

Norman was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, and disqualified from driving for 36 months. The police force is urging people to think before they get behind the wheel this summer.