Drunk coach driver jailed

Jun 24 2008 By Steve Johnson

A MIDLAND coach driver who was almost twice the drink-drive limit when he lost control and crashed on a motorway slip road, leaving passengers seriously injured, was today jailed for ten months.

Father-of-two Leslie Weinberg, 35, of Meyrick Road, Hill Top, West Bromwich, was also banned from driving for four years when he appeared at Aylesbury Crown Court.

He was driving a National Express coach when the accident happened at Newport Pagnell Services, next to the M1, on September 3 last year.

Weinberg had previously admitted dangerous driving and drink-driving.

He had 145 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80.

More than two dozen coach passengers were injured in the crash, with some having to crawl free through the skylights after the coach overturned.

Weinberg himslef was injured in the smash. Thirty of the 34 people aboard the Birmingham to Stansted Airport service were hurt.

Judge Christopher Tyrer, sitting at Aylesbury Crown Court at the previous hearing on April 14, told Weinberg that because he was intoxicated he had mistaken where he was and did not realise where the motorway exit was.

Weinberg was suspended by his bosses, Veolia Transport, hired to operate the busy 777 route for National Express, immediatley after the accident.

He joined the company just four months before the accident.

Weinberg lives with his wheelchair-bound wife Kendra and their two children.