Crash driver left injured friend

RUNNING off after crashing the car he was driving, leaving a seriously injured mate behind, has put a Toowoomba man behind bars.

Sandon Peter Pearson, 40, and a friend had been drinking at a barbecue on April 24, 2016, when he offered to drive his friend to get some food after the friend complained of being hungry, Toowoomba District Court heard.

Despite his driver’s licence being suspended and his $200 car unregistered and uninsured, Pearson drove the pair.

However, shortly into the drive and ignoring his friend’s pleas to slow down, Pearson had lost control of the car at speed and crashed into a power pole on Miranda Drive, Wilsonton Heights, Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso told the court.

He drove on only to crash into a second pole, after which he alighted from the vehicle and ran off, leaving his mate injured and bleeding in the car.

Fortunately, neighbours came to the injured man’s aid and called an ambulance, Ms Kelso said.

The injured man was taken to hospital with a 10cm cut to his forehead, a puncture wound to his left thigh, and a detached retina she said.

Pearson had later tried to get a mutual friend to talk the injured man into giving a false story to police in which Pearson wasn’t the driver at the time of the crash, the court heard.

Though he admitted to having been drinking prior to the crash, the defendant’s level of alcohol was not known because he had run off, Ms Kelso said.

Pearson pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing grievous bodily harm, leaving the scene of an accident without rendering assistance to an injured person and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

His barrister Steve Kissick said his client was now receiving counselling and volunteering with a Salvation Army store.

Judge Tony Rafter SC sentenced Pearson to three years in jail but ordered he be released on parole as of June 1, next year, after having served 10 months.

He was disqualified from holding or obtaining a licence for two years.