A DRINK-driving motorcyclist who ran a red light and slammed into the side of a car close to Carlisle city centre has been jailed.
Tony Moorhead, 27, was not wearing a helmet while riding the Honda machine at around 11-30pm on December 4 last year.
One car driver travelling up Warwick Road stopped at a red light at the junction with Brunswick and Spencer streets, and then began to move off as it turned green. “He saw what he describes as a flash of light from the right hand side, with an impact to the offside of his car,” prosecutor Gerard Rogerson told Carlisle Crown Court. That “flash of light”, he revealed, was helmet-less Moorhead, who had travelled through a red light and crashed into the car.
Several motorists went to help Moorhead, who had suffered serious long-term head and leg injuries. Blood tests taken an hour after the crash showed he was almost twice the legal drink-drive limit.
Moorhead – banned from the road in 2015 for ploughing into parked vehicles having had excess alcohol – admitted dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and no insurance following the latest incident. He was jailed for six months by Judge David Potter, who heard the defendant had 81 offences on his criminal record.
Referring to Moorhead’s 2015 driving conviction, Judge Potter told him: “It is clear to this court you learned nothing from that incident.”
Moorhead, of Harrison Street, Carlisle, also received a two-year driving ban and must take an extended re-test.
