Drive home goes terribly wrong

Woken by the crash, Alistair Cochrane’s girlfriend opened her eyes to find a large piece of wood had pierced the windscreen right above her head.

She was sitting in the front passenger seat, but had it fully reclined.

Cochrane, 23, had taken his girlfriend to a mate’s house in Blenheim to drink earlier that night, and they decided to go home at 5am, a police summary said.

Cochrane fell asleep at the wheel on Wither Rd and hit a parked ute, before ploughing through a fence and into a house.

Two structural posts of the porch, which took the brunt of the crash, were significantly damaged, the summary said.

The impact of the crash sent the lid of a metal barbecue on the porch through a window. Cochrane reversed off the property and drove home.

When spoken to by police about the July 15 crash, Cochrane said he drove away because he panicked.

He told police he had less than five hours’ sleep the night before,

The impact of the crash sent the lid of a metal barbecue on the porch through a window.

then worked a full shift, then went to his friend’s house.

‘‘I hadn’t slept since the night before and the heaters were on,’’ he said.

The owners of the ute, the fence and the house sought reparation.

Cochrane admitted careless driving, leaving a crash without seeing if anyone was injured, and driving while forbidden at the Blenheim District Court on Monday.

He was forbidden from driving on June 19. His lawyer John Holdaway said Cochrane thought he could still drive if he had a supervisor.

Judge Peter Butler convicted Cochrane and remanded him on bail to November 6, so his home could be assessed for an electronically monitored sentence and a reparation report could be completed before sentencing.