Cheltenham mum Rachael Lea Salerno took out three cars in drink-driving smash

A mum claimed she had only had three glasses of wine when police found her “stumbling around” the scene of a crash and her car so badly damaged it couldn’t be impounded.

A new mum was three times the legal limit when she smashed into a parked car at West Beach in a “stupid, bad, error of judgement”.

Rachael Lea Salerno, 30, told police she had only drank three glasses of wine but when they found her at the crash scene on Trimmer Parade she was “stumbling around” and her car was so badly damaged it could not be impounded.

Salerno, of Cheltenham, pleaded guilty to driving without due care and driving under the influence in the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Salerno broke into tears as she told Magistrate Paul Foley she had reflected on the incident and knew the end result of her choices could have been “much worse”.

“I know how much worse that night could have been and I’m so grateful that my daughter still has a mother,” she said.

“I just want it to be known that I can be a role model to my children and people around me and, with that said, I promise I have truly learnt my lesson and nothing like this will ever happen again.”

Rachael Lea Salerno smashed into a parked car when she was three times the legal limit. Picture: Facebook

Police were called to the crash at West Beach on October 21 last year where Salerno had collided with a parked car.

The impact was powerful enough to cause the car she hit to smash into another car in front of it.

When she was breath tested she blew 0.156.

Salerno told the court she “genuinely felt okay at the time” but that she was evidently more affected by the three wines due to not having drunk for the duration of a recent pregnancy and having “not eaten much that day” in an effort to lose weight.

“Regardless, it’s no excuse and it was a very stupid, bad, error of judgment,” she said.

Mr Foley said the reading was “fairly high” and the offence was serious.

It was high and serious enough to trigger an immediate 12-month licence disqualification, convictions for both charges and an $1100 fine.