Published: 14/04/2008 00:00 - Updated: 19/02/2009 00:30

Coach driver faces jail after admitting dangerous driving

The drunken driver of a coach which overturned at Newport Pagnell Services on the M1 has today (Monday) admitted dangerous driving.

Leslie Weinberg, 35, was arrested after being cut from the wreckage of the crash in which 33 passengers were injured, six of them seriously.

The National Express Birmingham to Stansted Scania coach had been due to stop at the MK Coachway at Junction 14, but left the motorway earlier on the southbound slip road to the services, where it overturned and hit trees and a lamp post.

Mr Weinberg, formerly of Meyrick Road in West Bromwich, had a drink drive reading of 145 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 milliletres of blood. The legal limit is 80mg per 100ml.

After the crash, which happened late in the afternoon of September 3 last year, casualties were treated at Northampton, Milton Keynes and Oxford JR2 Hospitals.

One man had his arm amputated.

The seriously injured included a 61-year-old man, a 45- year-old woman from Church Stretton, a 28-year-old man from Coventry, a 39-year-old woman from Worcester, a 60-year-old man from France, a 57-year- old woman from Australia and a 20-year-old man from Poland.

Today, (Monday) bespectacled Weinberg appeared at Aylesbury Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to driving dangerously and driving with excess alcohol.

Defence Barrister Simon Davis asked for the case to be adjourned for up to six weeks for medical reports.

Judge Christopher Tyrer told Weinberg he faced a jail sentence.

The judge told him "This is serious. The circumstances are very grave. As a result of your intoxication, you completely mistook where you were. You mistook the exit of the motorway and a number of people were seriously injured.

"This is way past the custody threshold and you should make arrangements accordingly."

The judge adjourned the case for sentence until May. He passed an interim Disqualification Order on Weinberg, who was bailed to live and sleep at Nimmings Road, Halesowen in the West Midlands.