Banbridge woman 'struggled to stay awake' in her car after police stopped her near Donaghcloney for dangerous driving, Craigavon court hears
A woman ‘drifted off to sleep’ on multiple occasions while talking to police after she was stopped on suspicion of driving while unfit, a court has heard.
Shannon Graham, aged 30, from Brookfield Meadows, Banbridge, didn’t appear before Craigavon Magistrates Court on Wednesday where she is accused of driving while unfit and dangerous driving.
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Graham’s barrister, Mr David McKeown, said his client already has a driving ban for the next two-and-a-half years.
She was spotted by police on the Banbridge Road, Donaghcloney on April 20, 2024 ‘swerving across the double solid white lines’.
The defendant came close to colliding with a police vehicle travelling on the opposite side of the road before quickly swerving back to her own side, a prosecutor said.
When Graham pulled in further down the road she drove into a kerb, damaging her front wheel.
Police said her speech was ‘slurred’ and ‘replies to be slow’. They also saw ‘her drifting off to sleep on multiple occasions within the car’. When she got out she ‘was unsteady on her feet’ and ‘struggled to stand’ and appeared confused, the prosecutor said.
Her evidential breath test was 0.
Mr McKeown said Graham had a “lot of difficulties” during 2024 and 2025.
“She was never out of these courts. To her credit over the last six to nine months she has kept her nose clean. She is keen to try and put it behind her,” said the barrister adding this is the last of the matters she has before the courts.
For each offence she was given a three-year driving ban and also fined £150 on each charge plus the £15 offender levy.