A motorist who crashed her car while inhaling a laughing gas balloon has been jailed for 20 months.

Jordanna Best, 21, lost control of her vehicle on a blind bend, drifted into the opposite carriageway and hit a van head-on in Manchester. Prosecutors said Best’s use of nitrous oxide put herself and others at risk with disastrous consequences.

One of her passengers in the Ford Ka suffered a fractured vertebra and injuries to her liver, while the other passenger received broken ribs. The van driver received cuts and bruises from the crash in Manchester Road, Carrington, on the evening of 10 March this year, Manchester Minshull Street crown court heard.

Best, of Partington, who suffered a collapsed lung in the collision, was sentenced on Tuesday for causing serious injury to her two passengers by dangerous driving, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said. She was also banned from driving for 34 months and must take an extended re-test.

A CPS spokesman said: “Jordanna Best took a series of risks that night, putting other road users as well as her passengers at serious risk of harm with disastrous consequences.

“She has accepted driving her car whilse inhaling nitrous oxide. Not only would this have affected her ability to drive safely, it meant she had to drive with only one hand on the steering wheel, whilse the balloon she inhaled from would also have obscured her view through the windscreen.

“She overtook another car before drifting again over the solid white lines into the path of oncoming traffic, whilse on a blind bend. The van driver she collided with did not stand a chance of avoiding the collision.

“As a direct result of her reckless actions, her two passengers were seriously injured, the van driver was injured, plus she also received fractured ribs and a collapsed lung. Her actions alone were responsible for this serious collision that risked the lives of those involved.”