Anger after driver freed; Sentence given to tailgater rapped as 'ludicrous'.

Byline: Jo Butcher and Garry Willey

ROAD safety campaigners have hit out after a speeding tailgater was spared jail. Paul Hogg was three times over the limit when he was clocked doing 100mph on the A1, centimetres behind other cars.

Safety campaigners have labelled his driving "appalling", warning he could easily have killed innocent people.

Last night they said it was "ludicrous" that Hogg was allowed to walk free from court yesterday.

Hogg, a test engineer, was first spotted tailgating near Belford in Northumberland, and eventually crashed near Gosforth, almost 50 miles away.

He sped up behind other drivers so close they could not even read his number plate in their rearview mirrors, and weaved from side to side looking for a chance to over or undertake.

The 46-year-old finally lost control of his silver Fiat cargo van and hit the back of a Peugeot, which he had been tailing by only 80cm. Both vehicles spun off the road into the nearside ditch.

The crash left the Peugeot passenger needing a course of physiotherapy and powerful painkillers.

Hogg was also injured. A test taken at hospital showed Hogg's blood alcohol level was three times the limit - but at first he claimed he had been driving normally and that others were to blame for the accident on January 25 this year.

Robert Spragg, defending, said Hogg's driving was out of character, as he was suffering from depression and had been began drinking heavily. Despite facing a maximum two years jail, Hogg left the dock with a suspended sentence after admitting dangerous driving and excess alcohol.

Recorder Bryan Cox told him: "I take into account that you have pleaded guilty, that you have lost your employment, and your hitherto good driving record.

"I have by a whisker decided it is possible to punish you in the community."

Hogg, of Eglington Street, Sunderland, was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

He was also banned for two years, put on supervision and a drink impaired driving programme, given a six-month curfew, and ordered to carry out 200 hours' unpaid community work.

But road safety groups were appalled and slammed the decision not to lock him up.

A spokesperson for safety charity Brake said: "For someone found guilty of being three times the legal alcohol limit and not sent to jail is ludicrous."

Jo Stagg, from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: "This is an appalling example of persistent bad driving. He is lucky to be alive and not in jail."