Pregnant mum fined for driving under influence of alcohol

A Perth woman faced Busselton Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday after falling asleep at the wheel and rolling a car on Bussell Highway on January 5.

Vernicia Renee Wilson pleaded guilty to driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol.

Wilson said she had been attending a funeral in Busselton the night before and thought her blood alcohol content would be under the legal limit when she drove back to Perth for work.

However, police prosecutor Sergeant Greg Walsh told the court Wilson lost control of her car soon after leaving, rolling the vehicle, and was conveyed to Busselton Health Campus with minor injuries.

The pregnant mother-of-one was breathalysed in hospital and recorded a reading of 0.181.

Magistrate Dianne Scaddan fined Wilson $2100 and disqualified her from driving for 30 months.

Ms Scaddan said Wilson had put her life and those of others at “serious risk”.

“The irony of the situation is you attended a funeral, yet the consumption of that amount of alcohol before driving puts you at risk of the same fate,” she said.