KATRINA Marie Baker was on her way to pick up her nine-year-old daughter from school at Wallsend when she crashed into a parked car.
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Her blood alcohol reading was 0.296 - nearly six times the legal limit.
Kerri Ann Newell, 42, was on her way home from the school run at Merewether Heights, her two kids in the car, when she was pulled over and blew 0.239.
Jason James Gough, 49, got caught high-range drink-driving at an RBT on Maitland Road, Mayfield, during double demerits on Easter Sunday. And an hour later, after catching a taxi from the police station back to his car, he got caught high-range again.
Both times he recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.198 - nearly four times the legal limit.
These three serious cases, all heard in Newcastle Local Court on Thursday, highlight the Hunter's enduring problem with drink-driving.
Despite tough new drink-driving laws, mandatory interlock orders and more anecdotal evidence than ever about the dangers of getting behind the wheel while intoxicated, the message is still not getting through and every Thursday Newcastle's local courtrooms are packed with people accused of serious drink-driving offences.
Baker, 40, of Wallsend, was in her Mazda 2 on the way to pick up her daughter from school about 3.10pm on June 27 when, while approaching a school zone, she crashed into a parked car.
When police arrived Baker needed help standing up, her speech was slurred and her eyes were bloodshot and glazed.
She later claimed she had drank four cans of beer between 11am and 2pm before driving two kilometres to pick up her daughter from school. She then recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.296.
Her solicitor, Roland Day, told Magistrate Robert Stone on Thursday that the decision to drive and pick up her daughter was a spontaneous one made five minutes before she was pulled over.
Baker pleaded guilty to high-range drink-driving and was placed on a nine-month intensive corrections order, fined $1000 and disqualified from driving for seven months.
"The reading indicates that you were not just affected but terribly affected," Mr Stone told Baker. "Appallingly affected. At 0.296 you are nearly at the stage of having alcoholic poisoning.
"And you were going to pick up a child with that level of alcohol in your bloodstream."
Meanwhile, Newell picked up her kids from school and was on her way home about 3.10pm on June 17 when she was pulled over by police who had been tipped off that she might be drink-driving.
She recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.239 and was charged with high-range drink-driving.
Newell pleaded guilty on Thursday and her solicitor, John Anthony, acknowledged the aggravating factors of the offence meant it had more than likely crossed the threshold into the territory of a custodial sentence.
Newell's matter was adjourned to August 29 for sentence.
Gough was on Thursday fined $2300, ordered to complete 350 hours of community service, disqualified from driving and placed on a lengthy good behaviour bond after he admitted to twice drink-driving in the space of an hour.