A DRUNKEN 40-year-old woman travelled hundreds of yards along a railway line before her vehicle broke down as a train approached, a court heard.

It was only good fortune that the Metro train – carrying 20 passengers – was on the opposite side of the track.

Alcoholic mother-of-three Karen Angus had drunk wine and taken anti-depressants when she got behind the wheel of her Mercedes.

While crossing the Metro line at Fawdon, in Newcastle, she mistakenly drove onto the tracks on the night of February 24.

CCTV footage played to Newcastle Crown Court showed Angus driving her silver saloon 700 metres along the track from Fawdon towards Wansbeck Road Metro Station.

Debbie Breen, prosecuting, told the court: "At about 11pm, Metro driver Alistair Joel saw headlights appear on the other side of the track.

"He slowed down, saw there was a car on the track and applied the emergency brakes." Having stopped 50 yards short of the car, the driver got out of his cab and walked down the track towards the car, whereby Angus wound down the window and told him: "I’m an alcoholic. My car won’t start." When interviewed by police, she said she had had a "bad day", said Miss Breen.

“She had been prescribed new medication that day and she had mixed the medication with a bottle of wine.

“She couldn’t remember driving and had no recollection of being on the track.”

The incident caused disruption to the Metro network and passengers had to use a taxi service to travel between Kingston Park and Regent Centre.

Angus, of Kielder Way, Gosforth, Newcastle, admitted at an earlier hearing endangering the safety of persons conveyed on a railway and failing to give a specimen of breath.

Jamie Adams, mitigating, said Angus had suffered for a number of years from alcoholism and was on anti-depressants.”

Judge David Wood sentenced Angus to ten months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, and made her subject of a 12-month supervision order. She was also banned from driving for three years.

‘‘Luckily for you, the Metro train coming from the opposite direction was on the other side of the track, otherwise you wouldn’t be here at all.”