[Faline]

A drunk blind man who ran down his girlfriend when he drove after drinking five bottles of wine has been jailed.
Scott Law, 33, who is registered blind, got behind the wheel of the family car after a drunken argument with his partner Suzanne Scawthon.
He ignored the safety of a two year old child in the rear passenger seat and drove straight at Ms Scawthon knocking her to the ground as she walked away.
Ms Scawthon escaped with minor grazing following the incident near his home, in Gainsborough, Lincs.
The couple then drove off but a passer-by who witnessed the incident took down the registration number of their Peugeot 206 and contacted police.
Law was traced through his number plate and admitted to officers that he was registered blind and could not drive.
He was breath tested and found to be more than twice the legal limit with 88 mgs of alcohol per 100 mls of breath. The limit is 35 mgs.
He was jailed yesterday for nine months at Lincoln Crown Court after admitting charges of dangerous driving, drink driving and driving without a licence and without insurance.
He was also disqualified from driving for six years.
Passing sentence, Judge Sean Morris told him: "You were driving up the road unable to see properly because you were registered blind and you were full of drink.
"You are a menace when it comes to cars. It is time you learned your lesson. You can sit in prison and think about your life and what you have done."
The court heard the incident occurred earlier this year after Law got into a row with his wife after drinking about five bottles of wine.
"The car was seen to veer erratically across the road. Initially the woman was driving with Law in the front passenger seat," Phil Howes, prosecuting, told the court.
"Witnesses describe them as arguing emphatically. Miss Scawthon got out and was quite upset and angry.
"Law was bare-chested and was seen to urinate against the side of the car. He was unsteady on his feet."
He added: "He then got into the driver's seat. Miss Scawthon was walking away up the road. Another driver stopped to see if she was OK and she said she was fine.
"She continued to walk away and didn't seem to notice when Law drove up behind her.
"He was accelerating and braking and then drove into the back of her. She was knocked forward onto the ground."
Law was later traced from the registration plate. Miss Scawthorn was sat in the car outside with the little boy still in the rear seat. Mr Howes said: "Law was upstairs in the house. He was drunk."
The court was earlier told that his eye sight was severely damaged when he suffered serious head injuries in a road accident in May 2005 and his sight problems became worse following injuries in a further crash four years later.
Mr Howes said: "This offence was aggravated by the fact that he was drunk and injury was caused. There was also a child in the back of the car at the time."
Sunil Khanna, defending, said Law turned to alcohol as a result of depression caused after he was turned down for jobs because of his poor eyesight.
"He began to drink more and more and he was heavily drunk on this day. He had drunk between four and five bottles of wine."
Mr Khanna said that Law was trying to catch up with his partner after she walked off. His poor eyesight and drunken state meant he misjudged distances and ended up knocking her down.

[Sharon]

Damned idiot

[kellyhound]

What a prick

[Oswald2001]

You can take the sight from a drunk, but you can't take the drunk from a...no, wait...

[DiamondSmiles]

He doesn't look blind. If he were, how did he find the right car?

Just read the entire article. He lost some sight after one car crash, and more in another crash.

Third strike! Lock him up and throw away the key!

[chris50stang]

was he blind after drinking?

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by chris50stang ↗

was he blind after drinking?

Yes, but, in addition, he was legally blind.

This, from yahoo, as to what is considered legally blind, so take it for what it's worth.

"According to the entry on blindness in the Yahoo! Health Encyclopedia, anyone with vision worse than 20/200 that cannot be improved with corrective lenses is considered legally blind. In addition, people with a visual field of less than 20 degrees diameter, (10 degrees radius), are also considered legally blind.

The American Optometric Association states that a person with 20/20 vision can clearly identify a row of 9mm letters from 20 feet. A legally blind person with vision of 20/200 has to be as close as 20 feet to identify objects that people with normal vision can spot from 200 feet. So a legally blind person needs a distance of two feet to spot the letters on a standard eye chart that is 20 feet away.

Legal blindness is very common in older people because eyesight tends to worsen with time and age. Approximately 135 out of every 1,000 people over the age of 65 are considered legally blind. About 1.3 million Americans fall into this category. Only about 10% of legally blind people read Braille, and a much smaller percentage use white canes or guide dogs.

In the United States, the leading causes of blindness are accidents, diabetes, glaucoma, and macular degeneration. Worldwide, the leading cause is vitamin A deficiency, which is entirely preventable. Between 100 and 140 million children are vitamin A deficient, and up to a half million of them go blind every year."