A CHORLEY woman lost consciousness at the wheel of her car and ploughed into a cyclist after taking five or six bags of cocaine at a party just hours earlier.

Mother-of-four Kelly Sumner stood in the dock at Bolton Crown Court with her head turned away from the public gallery, where several members of 58-year-old victim Stephen Derbyshire’s family sat, as Judge Timothy Stead sentenced her to three years in prison.

Senior IT consultant Stephen Derbyshire was left with severe head injuries, fractured spine and other fractures after being hurled into the air and against a lamppost on Lever Park Avenue, Horwich.

The court heard how the quick actions of others, including retired nurse Christine Holt, saved his life.

Mrs Holt gave Mr Derbyshire CPR after he stopped breathing before an air ambulance took him to Preston Royal Infirmary.

A keen cyclist, he had been out for a ride on a sunny Sunday afternoon on June 10.

The court heard how 35-year-old Sumner had been at a party where she had drunk vodka and cider and did not go to bed until 3am.

Following the collision a blood test revealed she had more than 800 micrograms of BZE, a metabolite of cocaine in her system — 16 times the legal limit.

The day after the party she got into her Nissan Micra, which was not insured, and drove.

Witnesses described how she went around a right hand bend on Lever Park Avenue just before1pm, but instead of following the curve of the road, continued in a straight line into the opposite carriageway and hit Mr Derbyshire. The cyclist ricocheted off the car’s bonnet and windscreen and was flung 10 to 12 feet in the air into a lamppost before landing on the pavement.

The collision was seen by Andrew Holt, who was driving home form church with his wife.

Duncan Wilcock, prosecuting, said: “He said that the driver took no evasive action.”

Sumner stopped and got out of her car, telling one witness: “I think I fell asleep at the wheel.”

Judge Stead commented: “She rendered herself so fatigued or intoxicated, or both, when, at a time when she should have been driving in a sensible and responsible manner in the easiest of conditions, she became unconscious herself.”

Mr Wilcock told how Mr Derbyshire suffered a cardiac arrest and was in a coma, only being discharged from hospital five months later.

A brain injury has left him needing round-the-clock care, with the grandfather unable the lead the independent life he once had.

Jon Close, defending Sumner, of Wright Street, Chorley, described her as a hard-working single mum.

He added that Sumner, who pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, drug driving and having no insurance, suffers from PTSD, depression, nightmares and has planned to kill herself since the collision.