A Wangaratta man who nearly killed himself in a crash while on ice has been ordered to complete 180 hours of community work, with his licence disqualified for double the mandatory minimum period. The 23-year-old appeared at Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court on Monday to hear his sentence, after he pleaded guilty to multiple charges of dangerous driving while unlicenced and breaching an order. The court previously heard at 2:15pm on 26 October last year the defendant crashed an LDV utility into a large gumtree on Glenrowan-Moyhu Road, about one kilometre from the Moyhu township. Several bystanders in the area assisted him after he was found unconscious in the driver’s seat with his head pressed against his chest. Emergency services arrived and airlifted him to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition. At 7:20pm that night, blood samples indicated methamphetamine was present in his system. Police were handed the wallet of the accused following the crash, which contained a small zip lock bag of ice, and the man held a disqualified driver’s licence. The court heard he spent 13 days in an induced coma at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and sustained a fractured jaw and vertebrae which required rods, bolts, screws and plates to be inserted into his body. Police arrested the Wangaratta man on 18 January when he couldn’t recall the incident but told officers he had taken ice two days prior to his crash. Just under a month prior to his near-fatal crash, the court heard he was caught speeding at 75km/h on Mason Street on 29 September and nearly caused a collision after evading police. As police approached his 32-year-old Holden sedan in the rain, they observed the car overtaking a vehicle and narrowly drifting into a woman and her elderly mother in another car around a bend. Police spoke to the female driver who said she was left terrified and thought she and her mother were about to die as the Holden slid towards them. The Holden sporting a rusted chassis, unroadworthy tyres and incorrect number plates was found abandoned nearby, with police tracking the defendant, in changed clothes, and his passenger into a local tavern. Defence counsel Nancy Battiato said since her client's last court appearance in July, he was regularly attending drug counselling appointments and had reached out about enlisting into a rehabilitation program. Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Stuart Pritchard said the man’s consistently dangerous driving and drug-related behaviour continually put the community at risk and asked for more than than the minimum 12-month licence disqualification. Magistrate Ian Watkins doubled the mandatory minimum licence loss, and said the 23-year-old was not mature enough to hold a licence over the next two years. “Your driving is just appalling… you’ve got a lot of work to do to get your licence back,” he said. “This is your last opportunity to show the court you are fair dinkum, you haven’t cared about the public, you haven’t cared about court orders.” Corrections officer Robert Parkinson said 160 hours of community work was required on the last order served on the accused, and not many of those hours had been completed. Magistrate Watkins imposed a new 18-month community corrections order which will include 180 hours of community work and treatment for drug abuse.
