Blacktown Next Day Drink Driving Case Study: Mid Range (0.106), Elderly Man Faints at the Wheel, Third Offence Ends With 3 Months (NSW)

Just outside Blacktown Local Court today where I've represented a uh an elderly man a lovely elderly older man who uh was unfortunately caught up into in a middle middle range drink driving offence that occurred in December last year where he was involved in a bit of a serious uh car accident on the M4 Motorway the fact surrounding the matter with this basically it was a next day type of offence because the night prior he gone to the [unclear: 'wendy leagues club' in the captions] at 7.30 pm had his first drink this was just before Christmas in the 19th of December uh met up with a friend over the course of about five hours he says he consumed about eight full strength beers

Three scotches uh then just after midnight he uh decided to leave uh and to his credit he did the right thing he rather than just uh drive home um he decided to sleep it off in the vehicle in his car at the premises so he went to sleep and woke up the next morning certainly it wouldn't have been the most comfortable of sleeps but he woke up the next morning about 7.30 and that's when he decided to drive home

Now my client is elderly and has experienced or has does have medical issues um relating to heart problems which he's had for a number of years now and he is medicated for high blood pressure but unfortunately because he didn't get home he wasn't able to take his medication he hadn't eaten any food and he probably had a belly full of alcohol from the night before so um certainly uh wasn't feeling his best self um but on the way home uh he describes feeling woozy

Uh ended up losing consciousness and fainting at the wheel of his car and obviously if you're if you fall asleep or faint at the wheel of your car you've got a 100% chance of having an accident and that's exactly what happened he veered off the side of the road collected the guard rail um and came to rest at a uh embankment down the road thankfully it was a single vehicle accident he was the sole occupant of the vehicle it was early on a Sunday morning

So there was limited traffic around but certainly the accident was quite significant the car was written off and it was certainly an aggravating factor for this particular matter I did explain to the court today how my client had tried to do the right thing by not driving straight after drinking trying to sleep it off and also outlining the issues surrounding his health and medical issues and and that the cause of the accident was predominantly due to his health issues more

So than his level of impairment because his blood alcohol reading did come back at 0.106 following the accident he was taken to the hospital with facial injuries he actually uh stayed in hospital for three days so his injuries were not insignificant his car was written off and it was a bit of a disaster of a situation for him um he went along did the Traffic Offenders Program he's retired with some health issues he survives off a part pension

Some small superannuation so he lives alone he's got no children no partner no dependents he's very close to his brother but does have to get to regular doctor's appointments um so getting around without a licence will be difficult the other factor that did come into play in relation to his matter which certainly did not assist him today was this was his third drink driving offence in his lifetime albeit the last one 2008 and the one before that was 1987. They were quite dated

But it doesn't change the fact that it was his third drink driving offence and certainly it was a bit of a bad one given the collision that occurred so his record of the accident had to be taken into account on sentence um he was however given a leniency due to completing the Traffic Offenders Program his financial status his health issues uh and the fact that he had tried to do the right thing by sleeping in his car

It was a next day offence so weighing up all these issues the magistrate agreed with me that he would be able to reduce his period of disqualification to three months does have to do the mandatory interlock period for 12 months um his fine was reduced down to $700 um so my client was very um happy with the outcome today he was certainly thinking he'd be looking at more time off the road but very very happy with the outcome especially considering it was his third drink driving offence in his lifetime so signing off from Blacktown Local Court here today and thanks for tuning in.