Mum accused of drink driving nine times over legal drinking limit insists she's ‘not a drunk’

The Australian “Drunk Mum” found passed out in her car, nine times over the legal drinking limit, says she is not an alcoholic.

Mother-of-two Susan Lung was arrested in November last year for drink driving after police found her sitting in her car, parked in a bus zone, almost incoherent, with a blood alcohol reading nine times over the limit.

The 42-year-old mum was so drunk she could have died.

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In an exclusive interview with 60 Minutes reporter Allison Langdon, Ms Lung speaks out against her critics, insisting not only is she not an alcoholic - but that she didn’t break the law.

“It’s not illegal to sit in your car and drink,” Ms Lung tells Langdon.

The morning of the incident, Ms Lung’s husband of 24 years told her he was leaving her.

Struck with grief and in a severe state of shock, Ms Lung says she dropped her children off at school and pulled over in a shady street – unaware it was a bus zone.

From 10am until 12.30pm, she sat in her car and drank almost two entire casks of wine.

“(I was) just sitting there thinking, ‘What’s happened to my life? Where did it go wrong?’”

“And then I remembered that I had wine in the back, so I just pulled it into the front and just took the first sip, and then from there I think it just went downhill.”

Ms Lung recorded one of the highest blood alcohol readings in NSW history.

Police charged her with drink driving, but in a controversial twist Ms Lung didn’t lose her licence because she says she consumed the alcohol in the two hours after she’d parked the car, and taken the key out of the ignition – and there was not enough evidence to prove otherwise.

When asked what would have happened if police hadn’t turned up, Ms Lung tells Langdon: “I would have probably just slept it off”.

“I wouldn’t have drove, I know I wouldn’t have, because I always have my kids on my mind. I wouldn’t do that,” she said.

Ms Lung is sharing her story to not only clear her name, but to highlight the extreme stress on Australian mothers causing them to turn to alcohol.

“Working full time, doing the kids, never having a day off… it’s hard,” she said.

Recent research shows nearly one in four Australian women aged between 35 and 59 consume dangerous levels of alcohol, and the number of women being charged with drink driving is increasing at an alarming rate.

Expert in alcohol abuse Dr Janice Withnall tells Langdon Australia is in a national health crisis.

With pressures on the modern mother constantly increasing, many are turning to a toxic place for support, and as Langdon reveals the adverse effects are killing a generation of women.