AUTHORITIES have described a drink-driving blood alcohol reading of 0.48 per cent as “crazy” after a Gold Coast woman was caught nearly 10 times the legal limit.

The figure could set a new national record, leaving police and ambulance workers wondering how the 42-year-old mother could even walk, let alone operate a vehicle.

The legal limit is 0.05. Health experts say most people pass out by 0.3 and are unconscious or dead before reaching 0.4.

Paramedics found the woman passed out in her car outside a Runaway Bay cafe and transported her to Gold Coast University Hospital where the toxication tests were done, back in October.

The results recently came back and authorities have suspended the woman’s licence while she waits to face Southport Magistrates Court in January charged with high-range drink-driving.

The Coast’s top traffic cop Brayden Murphy said it was the highest reading he had ever seen.