Drunken crash could ground trainee pilot’s career

A trainee pilot could be facing the end of his career before it’s even taken off, after he fell asleep drunk at the wheel of a car, hit a power pole and badly injured his friend.

Junior Steve Hoap appeared in the Nelson District Court yesterday for sentencing, proudly wearing his aviation academy flight training uniform, but knowing it might not be for much longer.

He was convicted on a charge he’d earlier admitted of causing injury while driving with excess blood alcohol after the potentially fatal crash on a narrow, poorly lit Dunedin road early on May 7 last year.

The 29-year-old from Papua New Guinea came to New Zealand with a dream of becoming a pilot, Judge Tony Zohrab said.

He was at a flight training school in Nelson but had been in Dunedin last year as part of his course when he got drunk and, in a “spontaneous lack of judgment”, borrowed a friend’s car, fell asleep while driving and slammed into a concrete power pole.

The car rolled down an embankment, stopping on the edge of an estuary. The force of the impact sent Hoap’s passenger through the windscreen, causing severe facial injuries, the police summary of facts said.

A passing police car came across the crash moments later and found Hoap unconscious in the driver’s seat.

An evidential blood sample showed Hoap had 220 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80mg.

The power company sought more than $11,000 in reparation for the replacement of the power pole and loss of power revenue.

Judge Zohrab ordered that Hoap pay half at $25 a week. He sentenced him to six months of community detention and 180 hours of community work.

He was also disqualified from driving for a year.

“Your lawyer has acknowledged on your behalf that a conviction is likely to have a crushing blow on your hopes of becoming a pilot,” the judge said.