A baby girl suffered skull fractures and brain haemorrhages when her drunk dad-of-three crashed his car while she was sitting unsecured on the back seat.
Richard Hefford had drank several beers and a Bacardi and Coke before setting off for the beach in his Vauxhall Corsa with his four-month-old daughter.
Three other females were also in the car on August 7, on what was one of the hottest days of the summer last year.
The baby was being held by one of the other passengers, and Hefford, 35, was driving at nearly twice the 20mph limit when he hit an oncoming car.
It was just seconds into the journey - with the other vehicle, an Audi, carrying friends of the defendant.
CCTV footage of the crash in Aylestone Meadows, Leicester, was played in court during a sentencing hearing on Wednesday.
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A witness later described hearing a loud bang and rushed towards both cars, reports LeicestershireLive.
He saw the baby was in distress and had a swelling on her head.
The little girl was rushed to Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham where she was also treated for broken ribs and cuts, and spent 20 days there.
Being under 14 months, she should have been strapped into a baby seat by law.
The Audi driver described hearing loud revving and seeing Hefford's Corsa "coming really fast and weaving" in the split seconds before the crash.
His passenger in the Audi suffered head and neck injuries and recurring headaches, the court heard.
The two men, who had been travelling to the nearby Co-op to get groceries for dinner, were both taken to hospital.
Officers at the scene described Hefford as being barechested and smelling of alcohol.
He failed a roadside breath test, later blowing 62 microgrammes per 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.
He admitted in his police interview that he had been drinking through the day, for about five or six hours, before getting into the car at about 7pm.
The court heard Hefford already had various convictions on his record, including two of driving with excess alcohol, one of aggravated vehicle taking, being drunk and disorderly, and driving while disqualified.
Hefford had earlier pleaded guilty to drink-driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, relating to his baby daughter and the Audi driver.
Philip Gibbs, defending, told the court: "There's no excuse for having an insecure child in a car and driving like that, under the influence of alcohol.
"He is utterly devastated that his behaviour had this effect on an innocent four-month-old child."
He said his client could now only see his children during visits to a contact centre. Mr Gibbs added: "There is no suggestion he is uncaring in relation to his daughter.
"He's drinking too much and placing others in danger."
Recorder Justin Wigoder jailed Hefford for two-and-a-half years.
He told him: "You were drinking. You admit that, over a period of five to six hours, you had, in your words, a few beers and a Bacardi and Coke.
"The result is that you were very nearly double the legal limit. You must have known your capacity to drive, and maybe your capacity even to think, was clouded by alcohol.
"You knew it was a street in which people parked and you have to weave in and out. It has a speed limit of 20mph and you were travelling at virtually double that speed."
Recorder Wigoder told Hefford that had he used a proper baby seat in the car, his baby would probably not have been injured.
As well as jailing Hefford, he banned him from driving for 51 months.
