Drug-driver was 16 times over the legal limit

A COKED-up driver on the wrong side of the road crashed into a patient transport ambulance, before his car burst into flames.

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Ian Bush, 43, smashed into the ambulance almost head-on, on Middlesbrough’s Cargo Fleet Lane, in the early hours of the morning - leaving a patient and an ambulance worker injured.

Bush sustained the most serious injuries in the smash on July 2 last year - he still uses a stoma, struggles with mobility, and is awaiting surgery.

On Thursday, Teesside Crown Court heard that, moments earlier, Bush had crashed into a pedestrian barrier at a roundabout.

A member of the public alerted the police but Bush drove off in his silver Peugeot.

Police found him on the same road, in the aftermath of the crash with the ambulance. A staff member had been sitting in the back of the patient transport vehicle, with a patient who would not wear a sealtbelt, the court heard.

Both men were thrown against the vehicle's inside fittings in the crash.