A DRUG-DRIVING butcher smashed into a car containing two elderly ladies, trapping them inside.

Toby Matthews had cannabis and cocaine in his system when he crashed his black Honda Civic into a red Hyundai i20.

The Hyundai’s occupants, aged 79 and 72, were “medically trapped” inside.

Ambulance and fire crews attended the scene and had to work together to release the pair.

They were then taken to Conquest Hospital in St Leonards where they were treated for serious and minor injuries.

Matthews, 37, a butcher of Linden Road, Bexhill, failed a roadside drugs test.

He was arrested and charged with driving with 2.1mcg of cannabis and 74mcg of benzoylecgonine - the main metabolite of cocaine - per litre of blood in his system.

The legal limits are 2mcg and 50mcg respectively.

At Hastings Magistrates’ Court on May 8, he was banned from driving for 16 months.

He was also ordered to pay a £400 fine, £85 costs and a £40 victim surcharge.

The crash happened in Bolebrook Road, Bexhill, at about 6.13pm on December 2.

Sergeant Dan Pitcher, of the Roads Policing Unit, said: “Even the smallest amount of drugs in your system can be enough to seriously impair your ability to drive, and anyone under the influence of substances should never get behind the wheel.

“Not only are you putting your own life at risk, you are also risking the lives of other innocent road users.

“Drug-driving destroys lives and we will continue to deal robustly with offenders as we endeavour to make our roads as safe as possible.”

A total of 240 motorists were arrested in Sussex as part of Surrey and Sussex Police’s Christmas crackdown on drink and drug-drivers, which ran from 1 December 2018 to 1 January 2019.

Of those, 108 have since been convicted in court. The remaining have either been charged, released under investigation or released without charge.