A TEENAGER who drove at speeds in excess of 100mph with two young children in the car is today banned from the road.

Josh Warwick

A TEENAGER who drove at speeds in excess of 100mph with two young children in the car is today banned from the road.

Samantha Leverett was clocked driving at 106mph along the A14 with a friend's children, aged nine and ten, in the back of her Vauxhall Astra.

The 18-year-old, who had only passed her test just over a year before the incident on April 6, was banned from driving for 56 days and ordered to pay a total of £210 in fines and court costs.

Speaking outside South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to a charge of speeding, Leverett admitted making a “stupid mistake”.

However, she said the confiscation of her licence meant she would lose her job as a bar manager at the Brewery Tap pub in Ipswich.

The court heard how she was stopped at Trimley on the Ipswich-bound carriageway at around 5.50pm. Magistrates were told the weather was overcast and the road was damp.

Leverett, of Alan Road, Ipswich, said the car she was driving was new and, with a 1.8 litre engine, much more powerful than she had been used to.

She said: “It was a silly thing to do. It was a new car and I wasn't used to it.

“I have really learned my lesson - it was a stupid thing to do.”

Asked what effect losing her licence would have, she said: “I would lose my job. I need to drive to make wholesale runs.”

Chairman of the bench, Matthew March, said a ban was inevitable.

“You have pleaded guilty but it doesn't change the fact that you were driving at 106mph.

“This was aggravated by the fact there were two children in the car with you.”

Today, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) branded Leverett's actions as “extremely foolhardy”.

Roger Vincent, from RoSPA, said: “Driving at those speeds is extremely dangerous. Even if you think you have control of the car you can't predict how other people are going to react around you.

“If anything does happen at that speed you have much less time to react and therefore much less chance of stopping safely.

“If you have a crash at that speed, the results would almost certainly be fatal.

“To put the lives of two children at risk is extremely foolhardy.”