Daniel Malcolm Ritchie pleads guilty to drink driving into Mount Coolum bus stop
A Sunshine Coast tradie, 32, who had a blood alcohol reading of 0.305 per cent was seen driving erratically through Mount Coolum before he came to a screeching halt into a bus stop.
Police & Courts
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A tradie was so drunk a police officer said he seemed he was trying to find the street when he crashed his company car into a bus stop, a court has heard.
Daniel Malcolm Ritchie, 32, was fined $1500 and ordered to pay $1246 restitution for the bus stop in the Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Thursday.
Magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist told Ritchie the court sentence would be a day he would “never forget”.
Ritchie returned a blood-alcohol content of 0.305 per cent at a police station after his arrest on October 19 and was rushed to Nambour Hospital.
Police prosecutor David Hoffmann told the court it appeared Ritchie was lost and was trying to find a street while driving when he accelerated and ploughed into a bus stop in Mount Coolum.
The court heard motorists were forced to alter their driving due to the electrician’s “strange and erratic” driving.
Concerned residents called the police after they witnessed Ritchie driving dangerously along Toolga Street at 1.10pm.
Defence lawyer Nick Crawford said the 32-year-old had been seeking counselling for his alcohol use.
Ritchie pleaded guilty to drink driving and driving without due care and attention and was disqualified from driving for 13 months.
Convictions were recorded.