‘I drive like a grandma now’

Drunk, high scooter star crashes in his fancy car

A SKATEPARK stuntman did an unwanted flip when he crashed his car into a stone fence and landed it in a paddock while driving home to Bannockburn.

Jake Mahon, 19, was affected by drugs and alcohol when he wrote off his newly repaired BMW late on December 17 last year, Geelong Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday.

He told magistrate Ann McGarvie the crash happened because he swerved to miss a kangaroo and lost control of his vehicle while driving on English Rd, near Lethbridge.

But the magistrate urged the P-plater to consider how the substances in his system would have influenced his reactions and driving ability.

The defendant told court he was a professional scooter rider, who showcased his skills on a tour of skate parks in the USA last year, and said he also worked full-time in a factory.

But he said the crash had tempered any instincts to be a daredevil behind the wheel of a car.

“I drive like a grandma now,” he said.

The court heard the rookie motorist already had an unenviable driving record, with a penalty issued to him earlier last year for driving between 25 and 30km/h over the speed limit.

Yesterday he pleaded guilty to a count of drink and drug driving and one of careless driving.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable David Vanderpol said Mahon was found “disori- ented and bleeding from the head” about 30m from the wreckage of his black BMW, which flipped multiple times when it hit the fence about 10.45pm.

He was taken to hospital, where tests taken about two hours after the crash proved he had ecstasy in his system and a blood alcohol concentration reading of 0.034.

“That’s not (ordinarily) me … I drank too much and had something I shouldn’t have,” Mahon said.

He told court he spent a week in hospital afterwards.

In the days after the crash, the teenager — also known as Jake Mahon Bartlett — told his Instagram followers: “I crashed at 100km an hour or 65km/h. Which I’m very lucky to be alive and the paramedics thought I should have died instantly at the scene, But somehow I have walked away from this but I am in hospital with two broken eyesocket and a broken fibia on my right leg.”

He told Ms McGarvie he had finalised 18 months of improvements to his car just six days before the crash, but the vehicle was written off in the incident. He said his time in hospital made him understand the potential consequences of the crash.

“Definitely enough time to realise it could’ve been much worse, and I could’ve killed myself,” he said.

But when he paused, Ms McGarvie intervened, adding “or, even worse, killed someone else, and had to live with that for the rest of your life.”

Mahon lost his driving privileges for a year and Ms McGarvie ordered he take part in drug and drink driver education courses.

She also fined him $500, but decided not to convict him.

“With a conviction you’d be unlikely to get into America for other events,” Ms McGarvie said, telling the teenager his “career would be ruined” if he committed a similar offence in the future.

“That’s not (ordinarily) me … I drank too much and had something I shouldn’t have.”

JAKE MAHON