Drunk driver ran over child
Autistic boy struck by drink-driver on way to school
A DRUNK, unlicensed driver who sped through a red light and mowed down a 14-yearold autistic boy on his way to school could be out of jail within 10 months.
Peter Price, 52, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to recklessly endangering serious harm, drink driving and driving an unregistered car without a licence following the incident last year.
The court heard Price was more than three times the legal blood-alcohol limit when he sped through the pedestrian crossing and struck the teenager about 8am late last year. The boy was thrown into the air by the impact and came back down onto the car’s windscreen before again flying forward and landing on the road.
A DRUNK, unlicensed driver who sped through a red light and mowed down a 14-yearold autistic boy on his way to school in Alice Springs could be out of jail within 10 months.
Peter Price, 52, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to recklessly endangering serious harm, drink driving and driving an unregistered car without a licence following the incident last year.
The court heard Price was more than three times the legal blood-alcohol limit when he sped through the pedestrian crossing and struck the teenager at about 8am on November 28.
The boy was thrown into the air by the impact and came back down on the car’s windscreen before again flying forward and landing on the road.
Police would later discover the brakes on Price’s car did not work properly and had two bald tyres, one of which had exposed wires showing through the rubber.
The boy suffered two broken bones and multiple cuts and bruises in the crash and underwent surgery at Alice Springs Hospital before being discharged two days later.
In setting a head sentence of 18 months in prison, Justice Peter Barr said the teenager barely left the house for a number of months after the crash and his mother had to take seven weeks off work to look after him.
“His injuries and the circumstances in which they were caused will impact on his future mental and physical health,” he said.
“His mother describes how he suffered significant pain and discomfort, along with anxiety, and that he was having flashbacks and bad dreams.”
Justice Barr also fined Price $1550 for the driving offences, noting his long list of prior drink driving convictions dating back to 1994 including a blood alcohol reading of 0.187 in 2006.
“Driving at an excessive speed, approaching and passing through a pedestrian crossing, against a red light, at eight o’clock in the morning when schoolchildren were about, was extremely reckless,” he said.
“There was a great danger of very serious harm, which fortunately did not occur.”
Price will be eligible for parole after 10 months.