Drug-driving overtaking low and high-range drink-driving offences on the Central Coast
If you drink and drive, you’re a bloody idiot — or so the slogan goes. But what if you take drugs and drive? Chances are you’re becoming a more common idiot, according to the latest data.
Central Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Central Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Driving while exceeding the prescribed content of illicit drug offences have eclipsed the number of motorists charged with low range and mid-range drink-driving on the coast for the past two years according to data from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR).
It comes as drug-driving offences have increased 30 per cent across NSW in the five years to 2020 according to the latest available BOCSAR data and up 45 per cent on the Central Coast in the same period.
Much of the rise has been attributed to a significant increase in roadside drug testing, which has seen mobile drug testing become almost as prolific as roadside blood alcohol screening.
The result has seen more drivers charged with drug-driving – a total of 282 – on the coast than the 167 motorists charged with high range drink-driving in the 12 months to December 2020.
Similarly the number of motorists detected drug-driving has eclipsed those charged with low range drink-driving on the coast every year for the past four years.
The coast ranked seventh in NSW for the number of motorists charged with drug-driving in 2020 behind Sydney with 738 drivers charged, Sutherland 397, Port Stephens with 322, Fairfield at 314, Liverpool 305 and Lake Macquarie with 300.
The devastating consequences to the community from drug-driving can be profound. Below is a number of high profile matters finalised in the courts last year.
LLEYTON VAN SPRONSSEN
If there was ever a salient real life warning about the dangers of young, inexperienced and intoxicated males getting behind the wheel then 19-year-old Lleyton Van Spronssen is its poster boy.
The 19-year-old hugged friends and family as he arrived at Gosford District Court in April last year knowing he was going to jail for a high-speed crash which killed his mate Rhys Morris and injured three other passengers.
An agreed set of facts states he was celebrating an 18th birthday at Central Coast Leagues Club on March 20, 2020 year when he was seen to consume five beers.
He also consumed 1g of cocaine before he was refused service and kicked out of the club shortly before 2am on March 21.
The facts state he then went to a house party at Narara where he took MDMA before getting behind the wheel of a friend’s silver Mitsubishi Lancer with three others to go and buy cigarettes.
On the way he stopped to pick up a fourth passenger and after purchasing smokes at the Lisarow 7-Eleven, Van Spronssen started speeding along Washington Ave before he lost control on a right hand curve near Perrat Close and hit a tree and a timber pole.
He was travelling approximately 134km/h, according to an agreed set of facts.
Van Spronssen pleaded guilty to aggravated dangerous driving occasioning the death of his mate Rhys Morris and grievous bodily harm to another passenger while travelling more than 45km/h above the speed limit and under the influence of drugs.
He was sentenced to five years and four months jail with a non-parole period of two years and eight months.
KATHRYN LOUISE JOHNSON
A 35-year-old drug addicted mum and serial driving offender led police on an 11km-long pursuit through Killarney Vale and Bateau Bay before crashing into a pedestrian crossing light on Wyong Rd.
As police approached the vehicle Kathryn Louise Johnson reversed harshly and narrowly missed hitting an officer before she was arrested.
Johnson later recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.098 and officers found 7g of cannabis on her.
Johnson was refused bail after the pursuit abut 10.40pm on June 24, 2020, with Wyong Local Court hearing she was due to face court in Hornsby the same day charged with driving while disqualified and with illicit drugs in her system.
Johnson, who represented herself, pleaded guilty to not stopping during a police pursuit, dangerous driving, mid-range drink-driving, driving while disqualified and possessing a prohibited drug.
The court heard the pursuit reached speeds of up to 130km/h before her Kia Sportage lost control near the intersection of Shortland St and crashed outside the Shell service station at Killarney Vale.
She was sentenced in May to two years jail with a non-parole period of 18 months.
SAM CONWAY
Sam Conway became one of the Central Coast’s most wanted fugitives when he tasered his ex-girlfriend’s new male friend as he sat in a car at Toowoon Bay about 10.45pm on December 17, 2018, before stabbing him in the chest and upper arm.
But having been on the run for nearly a month the then 26-year-old became one of Australia’s most wanted after stealing a white Land Rover Discovery from a house at Terrigal before crashing head – on with a Kia sedan on Wyong Rd on January 15, 2019, killing family man Darren Hill who was on his way home from work.
Conway was eventually arrested and charged over the Toowoon Bay stabbing but maintained he was not the driver of the Land Rover involved in the fatal collision.
Conway was sentenced to two years and three months jail, with a non-parole period of one year and four months, after pleading guilty to reckless wounding in company and intimidation.
He faced a Judge-alone trial in 2020 after pleading not guilty to the manslaughter death of Mr Hill, 45, while under the influence of drugs and driving while disqualified.
The court heard Conway took a wide left turn out of Mingara Drive onto Wyong Rd, which saw him on the wrong side of the road where he accelerated to 120km/h in a 60km/h zone.
By the time he and Mr Hill came around a bend there was little either could do to avoid the head-on collision, the force of which shunted Mr Hill’s sedan back 20m.
Conway fled the scene on foot.
His defence, that he wasn’t driving, imploded when the court was shown CCTV of him driving through the McDonald’s at Bateau Bay about 45 minutes before the fatal crash.
He was sentenced in March last year to 11 years jail with a non-parole period of seven years.
AMANDA CHARLENE HALEY
Amanda Charlene Haley, 38, of Springfield, was supposed to be heading to Woy Woy to pick up keys for emergency housing but ended up travelling in the opposite direction when she ploughed head-on into another car at Forresters Beach shortly before 3pm on January 25, 2020.
The impact trapped the other driver Glenn Clarke, 65 and his wife in the front passenger seat Angela Gillfeather, 67, who later died from “overwhelming massive haemorrhage”.
Haley admitted smoking `ice’ that morning and blood tests revealed she would have been under the influence of methylamphetamine to the extent her driving would have been “very substantially impaired”.
Haley pleaded guilty to aggravated dangerous driving causing death and grievous bodily harm while under the influence of drugs.
She was sentenced to five years jail with a non-parole period of three years.
Splash of vino, darl?: Car thief locked up after wine text bungle
A serial offender with more than 50 prior charges broke into a popular pub and stole thousands of bucks worth of booze before foolishly texting his lady a pic – asking if she was keen for a drop.
Read more
Alleged dog shooter ‘likely’ to plead guilty: Court
A man who allegedly robbed an elderly couple in their motorhome before shooting their dog with an air rifle is ‘likely’ to plead guilty, a court has heard.
Read more