Woman Cleared Of Drunk Driving Charges After Telling Court She Drank Vodka To 'Calm Down' After Car Crash

A woman in UK was cleared of drunk driving charges after she was able to prove that she had two bottles of neat vodka to 'calm herself down'.

Kelsey Ridings, 26, was arrested in May after crashing her Mercedes into a Peugeot 308 in a head-on collision, Manchester Evening News reported. Ridings had her four young children in the car at the time and was reportedly returning home from a beauty salon.

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Ridings offered the driver of the Peugeot, Carl Kidd, ?1,000 (Rs 1 lakh) to forget the incident, but then drove away before local police reached the scene.

When the authorities tracked her to her home at Mottram near Hyde, Greater Manchester, the police found her to be more than four times over the legal drink-driving limit.

"She was well over on my side of the road and she was coming at speed. I steered away to avoid a head on collision but she caught the back end of my car," Kidd told the court.

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However, following a hearing, Ridings has been cleared of the drink driving charge after a justice of the peace ruled there was ¡®insufficient evidence¡¯ to prove she had been drunk at the time of the crash.

Ridings stated that she had drunk the two bottles of vodka in a matter of minutes at her friend Paige Azad's house, and had not been drinking while driving. She said she left the scene after Kidd became aggressive and demanded money and insurance information.

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In the court, Miss Azad claimed she had poured the drinks for Ridings and it had 'a lot of vodka and a bit of coke'. She added that Ridings was given a lift home after the drinking session.

While delivering the verdict, the court said Ridings' account was 'often confused and misleading' but Miss Azad's evidence was 'totally incredible'.

As no one was injured in the crash, Ridings was cleared of any wrongdoing and let go.