Drugged driver hits power pole
Wade Watson’s blood was sullied with non-prescription drugs when he veered off the road and smashed into a power pole at 80kmh.
‘‘You are lucky to be standing before me, given what happened,’’ observed Judge Sharyn Otene, when Watson appeared for sentencing in the Hamilton District Court.
Wade Richard Watson, 31, had just plead guilty to charges of careless driving, driving with blood containing evidence of a controlled substance, and possession of methamphetamine and LSD.
He had suffered critical injuries in the crash on Cambridge Rd in Cambridge on December 5.
Watson had been heading south and was approaching St Peter’s School at 7.38am when his Toyota Caldina veered left and travelled over the grass verge and into the pole without braking.
The pole fell on top of his car. Badly injured, he had to be carefully cut out of the mangled wreck by firefighters before being taken to Waikato Hospital.
An analysis of his blood, taken while he was recovering in hospital, found traces of methamphetamine and tetrahydrocannabinol, one of the main elements of cannabis.
The car was taken to a police station where it was examined. Inside was a sunglass case, and inside the sunglass case were five ziplock bags containing methamphetamine and an LSD tab wrapped up in foil.
When he was well enough to be interviewed by the police, Watson admitted he had been smoking methamphetamine and cannabis in Hamilton the night before, and he was taking the drug’s to a friend’s house.
Judge Otene took note of Watson’s two previous convictions for driving with excess breath alcohol in 2011 and 2014, before convicting him and sentencing him to 80 hours of community work.
Watson was also disqualified from driving for 16 months, and he has to pay $5923.79 for the power pole he crashed into.
Judge Otene also ordered the destruction of the drugs.
‘‘You are lucky to be standing before me, given what happened.’’