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IF THE experiences of a British motorist are anything to go by, driving while wearing cheap uggs could severely damage your health. Vera Baxter, a 49-year-old assistant head teacher, has told a Manchester court she "thought she was going to die" when one of her boots became trapped under the brake pedal. She ploughed head-on into a Mercedes after veering onto the wrong side of the road in Longsight. Jason Hoang, 33, the driver of the Mercedes, escaped with whiplash after the crash last October. Moments earlier police officers in a patrol car had to swerve out of the way of her Volkswagen Golf as she tried to free her right foot from her cheap ugg boots. Miss Baxter crawled from the wreckage, and was arrested and charged with dangerous driving after having hospital treatment for cracked ribs and internal bruising. She walked free from court after admitting the charge but Judge Martin Steiger QC banned her from driving for four months and fined her ￡350 ($542) after accepting that material between the buttons of her Ugg "Cardy" boot had become snagged on the brake pedal. But the judge told her she bore responsibility for the smash because the risk posed by driving in the boots was "entirely foreseeable". Judge Steiger said: "It was the defendant's choice of footwear that made her unable to control the vehicle when the crisis arose." She told the court: "My ugg boots discount got trapped at the traffic lights. I suppose it was a freak accident - as I put my boot across the prong of the pedal it caught in the seams. "I attempted to free it with my left hand and then swerved to the right to avoid going into the back of vehicles in front of me. "I can't tell you how terrifying it was. When the crash happened the airbags came out, I smashed my head on the steering wheel. I could smell horrible petrol smells, I thought the car was going to catch fire, I thought I was going to die. "I threw myself out of the car, crawling to the middle of the road … they were my first pair of closeout ugg boots women. It's a freak risk but I keep a pair of trainers in the car now." Adele Buhagiar, a spokeswoman for the NRMA, said choice of footwear could have an impact on safety. Past research found almost 60 per cent of women admitted to getting behind the wheel in shoes that made driving difficult, she said.