BRAVE neighbours risked their safety to make a citizens' arrest on a drunk nurse who crashed her car in their road in the early hours of the morning.

Residents of The Grove in Southend, proved that community spirit is alive and well when they detained the woman who smashed into a Transit van and then tried to flee the scene earlier this month.

Southend hospital nurse Diana Davis, 42, was later found to have drunk almost three times the legal alcohol limit when she caused the disturbance.

Neighbour Maree Davidson, 39, said: "She would have had to have got through the whole street to get away. About a dozen neighbours came racing out when we heard the crash."

The former police officer was in her front room when she heard the car screeching round the corner just before 1am.

She said: "I raced out yelling at her to get out.

"She tried to hit the accelerator and I was worried she might hit me, so I jumped out of the way, but her axle had broken. She was desperately trying to get away."

Ms Davidson, who teaches at Appelton School in Benfleet, reached into the car and turned the engine off before helping Davis to get out.

An off-duty policeman who lives nearby came to help while Ms Davidson called the police.

She added:Together we decided she wasn't going anywhere. She tried to walk off a few times, but neighbours blocked her and sat her against a wall.

"The van she hit was halfway up the pavement.

"If someone had been walking along there, that would have been the end of them."

The residents also complained they are regularly plagued by boy racers who speed along nearby Central Avenue. It has become so much of a problem, they have lobbied the council to take action against the offenders.

l Davis, a mother-of-three of Norwich Avenue, Southend, pleaded guilty to drink-driving at Southend Magistrates' Court and was banned from driving for three years.

Alan Hurst, defending, told the court Davis was suffering a considerable amount of stress at the time and panicked after crashing her car on May 5.

He said: "She is a supportive mother who is deeply ashamed of what occurred."

Davis was also given a 12-month supervision order including 60 hours of unpaid work.