Three strikes for driver

Man was 65kmh over speed limit, drink driving, unlicensed

IT was a case of three strikes and you’re out for a 33-yearold man caught doing 65kmh above the speed limit while drink-driving while driving unlicensed.

Police at a speed detection site on the Cunningham Highway south of Toowoomba about 1pm, Sunday, July 11, spotted a car driven by Samuel Quentin Vanzeeland pull out of traffic and hit a speed of 145kmh in the 80kmh zone.

Pulled over and asked if he had an emergency, Vanzeeland said he was just overtaking vehicles on his drive home to the Gold Coast, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard.

Checks of his driver’s licence found his licence was demerit point suspended and a roadside breath test showed the 33-year-old had a breath/ alcohol reading at the time of 0.058, police prosecutor Sergeant Natalie Bugden told the court.

Vanzeeland pleaded guilty to the three offences of disobeying the speed limit by more than 40kmh, driving while over the general alcohol limit but not over the middle alcohol limit, and driving while his licence was demerit point suspended.

His solicitor Alysha Jacobsen, of Bouchier Khan Lawyers, told the court her client and his brother had been to a birthday party in Killarney the night before where he had been drinking alcohol. Though he instructed he had drunk a carton of beer at the party the night before, he thought he had given sufficient time to be right to drive, she said.

Her client had learnt a valuable lesson by this, Ms Jacobsen submitted.

Vanzeeland had been working from home in Toowoomba, but he told the court he was living on the Gold Coast.

Magistrate Kay Ryan fined Vanzeeland a total of $2000 and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for seven months.