A DRINK-DRIVER left a bridge badly damaged while driving at night for the first time in two years.

Housewife Linn Carter helped the PTA at her children's school take down the Christmas decorations, a court heard yesterday.

When Carter went to Belmont Grosvenor School at Birstwith, near Harrogate, last December, it was one of the rare occasions she had ventured out alone after coming down with depression, Harrogate magistrates heard.

Term had finished and when the decorations were down the gathering headed off to nearby Hampsthwaite for a drink in the village pub.

Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting, said Carter, 39, left for her home at Vyner House, Markington, near Ripon, in her Suzuki Vitara Jeep about 10.30pm.

Minutes later she failed to negotiate a bend and the Suzuki smashed into the bridge over the River Nidd and overturned, demolishing a section of the stonework and totally blocking the road.

Tests showed Carter's alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit and it was almost 8am the next day before she sobered up enough to be allowed home.

In mitigation Geoffrey Rogers said the mother-of-two, had had a glass of red wine at home and three more in the pub.

Charles Carter told the court it was his wife's first offence in 22 years' driving.

She was banned from driving for two years, ordered to do 150 hours community work, and pay £69 costs.