A SERIAL drink driver’s “lethal” attitude to safety could have caused a fatal crash when she ignored signs closing the A1(M) in North Yorkshire in high winds, police have warned.

Officers were dealing with a series of overturned lorries and other weather-related incidents on the major trunk road when they saw Zara Amjad, 34, driving along the closed stretch and heading straight for a collapsed barrier on the outside lane on January 9, 2015.

They managed to stop her hitting the barrier and arrested her. It was the third time in three different parts of England in just over two months she had been caught drink-driving.

The others were in Huddersfield on November 7 and on the M62 near Rochdale on December 20.

Amjad, of Alwen Avenue, Huddersfield, was given a 22-week prison sentence, suspended for two years for three offences of drink driving.

She was also ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and an £80 statutory surcharge. She was banned from driving for five years.

PC David Minto, of North Yorkshire Police’s Roads Policing Group, said: “Ms Amjad is very lucky that she has only had to face the court on drink-driving charges.

The consequences of her behaviour could have been deadly both for herself and other road users, not to mention the emergency services and highways’ officers who were working to clear the closed road.

“I sincerely hope that Ms Amjad learns from her experience and addresses what is a potentially lethal attitude to road safety.”