A PASSING family vehicle was almost hit by a drink driver whose car hit a central reservation and flipped over as it careered up a road.

John Paul Flannagan was at the wheel of a Skoda Octavia estimated to be doing more than 60mph on a 40-limit northbound stretch of the A167 between Spennymoor and Durham, at about 8.45pm on March 29.

Durham Crown Court heard the Octavia clipped a central reservation though Croxdale, showering debris over an oncoming car containing an eight-year-old girl and her parents.

Martin Towers, prosecuting, said one witness described the car “launching into the air” before finally halt ing some way down the road.

Flannagan, who escaped with superficial cuts to his hands and arms, was subject to onlookers' anger, as they thought he was trying to flee the scene.

But the court heard a passer-by tried to usher him away to prevent any confrontation with irate witnesses.

Flannagan gave a positive breath test at the scene and told an officer he had drunk “two pints”, but a further test revealed he was more than double the drink drive limit.

Flannagan accepted he was over the limit, but initially claimed he had not driven dangerously.

But, the 35-year-old, of Baff Street, Spennymoor, admitted both dangerous driving and driving with excess alcohol.

The court was told his 62 previous convictions, mostly dating from the 1990s, include three for drink-driving.

Scott Smith, mitigating, said most of Flannagan’s criminal record is, “of some age now”.

“He has grown out of offending and, since 1998, it’s stopped, other than for getting into a car when he has been drinking.”

Jailing him for a year, Judge Peter Kelson told Flannagan, it was, “more by luck than judgement”, that no-one was seriously injured.

“It’s shuddering to hear how close you came to that vehicle coming in the opposite direction.

“One can only imagine how frightening it must have been for that mother and father with their eight-year-old daughter in the car.”

He was banned from driving for three years and must sit an extended re-test before he can legally drive again.