A DRINK driver has been jailed for his part in a crash which left his passenger reduced to communicating by blinking.

Steven Pritchard was nearly one-and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit when his Vauxhall Vectra, said to have been travelling at 100mph minutes earlier, smashed into a Vauxhall Zafira, careered off the road and hit a tree.

He and David Payne, neither of whom were wearing seatbelts, were thrown out of the front passenger window.

Mr Payne, from Newcastle, who had been asleep in the passenger seat, was paralysed from the neck down.

Pritchard, of Woodside, Sacriston, County Durham, was also seriously hurt.

Both men were airlifted to The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, by police helicopter.

Yesterday, Pritchard was sentenced to 12 months in prison, after admitting dangerous driving and drink driving.

The incident happened on the A181 near Thornley, east Durham, at about 7.50pm on Tuesday, April 7.

Pritchard had been drinking with his girlfriend and Mr Payne during the afternoon, Amanda Rippon, prosecuting, told Durham Crown Court.

The couple had an argument and Pritchard drove off from a Jet garage in Wheatley Hill.

Two witnesses in separate vehicles saw him driving at an estimated 100mph, Miss Rippon said.

The Vectra then hit the Zafira, which was travelling in the same direction, before colliding with a lamppost and a tree.

The 60-year-old man at the wheel of the Zafira and his 62- year-old wife, from Thornley, suffered whiplash injuries.

Tests showed Pritchard had 131 millilitres of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood – the legal limit is 80.

The 22-year-old pleaded guilty to one charge of dangerous driving and one charge of driving while over the legal alcohol limit.

Sentencing, Judge Christopher Prince said Mr Payne’s life had, in many respects, been ruined.

However, he said the case would have been more serious had Pritchard been racing or being pursued and gave him credit for pleading guilty to the charges at an early stage.

Pritchard was sentenced to 12 months in prison for dangerous driving and one month in prison for drink driving.

The terms will run concurrently.

He was also banned from driving for three years.