Gorokan: Naomi Whitfield, 36, busted mid range drink-driving twice in 24 hours after two separate crashes
A woman was nearly double the limit as she veered in and out of lanes before triggering a crash on a busy arterial road. But what she did the following day almost defies belief, a court has heard.
Central Coast
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If at first you don’t succeed, aim for an even more spectacular failure the next time.
That wasn’t what a young mum was hoping for when she got done for mid range drink-driving after causing a crash.
But that is exactly what happened when she went out the following evening after another skinful of wine and caused an even bigger crash at an even higher blood alcohol reading, a court has heard.
Naomi Whitfield, of Gorokan, faced Wyong Local Court on Monday where she pleaded guilty to two counts of drink-driving, two counts of negligent driving and one count of driving while suspended.
Her solicitor told the court Whitfield had consumed wine before starting to cook dinner about 4pm on Sunday, January 5, when she drank some more.
He said she took a nap before having an argument with her mother and decided she wanted to get out for a bit.
An agreed set of facts states Whitfield was driving her white BMW coup west on Wallarah Rd at Gorokan about 5.30pm when there was a Holden sedan and a Jeep coming the other way.
“The accused has veered all over the road and into the lane travelling in the opposite direction that the white Holden and white Jeep were travelling in,” the facts state.
“At this point, the accused was travelling straight into the direct path of the white Holden.”
The facts state Whitfield tried to veer further right to go around the Holden but clipped its front passenger side.
Whitfield kept going, went past the Jeep on the wrong side before veering back into her lane.
“An ambulance travelling along Wallarah Rd at the time has witnessed the incident and has activated their lights and sirens to try and pull over the accused due to her dangerous manner of driving,” the facts state.
Whitfield pulled over but on the other side of the road “all the commotion has confused the other drivers and the white Jeep has collided into the rear of the white Holden who had stopped due to being hit by the accused’s vehicle”.
Whitfield was breath tested at the scene and returned a reading of 0.141 before being taken to Toukley Police Station where she returned an official reading of 0.09.
Her licence was suspended on the spot.
Her lawyer said Whitfield went home “very upset” and proceeded to drink an entire bottle of wine and had another nap.
He said the following afternoon she had consumed more wine when she decided “she just wanted to get away”.
About 6pm on Monday, January 6, Whitfield was driving her BMW on Central Coast Highway near the intersection of Boondilla St, The Entrance.
“The accused collided with a blue Tesla sedan which was legally parked kerbside about 20m from Boondilla St,” the facts state.
“The impact of the collision caused the accused’s front airbags to activate, resulting in the front windscreen to sustain extensive cracks.”
Police attended and subjected her to a breath test which returned a reading of 0.188 before she was taken to The Entrance Police Station where a secondary analysis returned an official reading of 0.141.
“The accused was not given the chance to participate in an electronically recorded interview due to her level of intoxication,” the facts state.
“The accused has shown disregard with compliance of NSW road legislation and continued to drive while her licence was suspended, she was then subsequently found driving with middle range PCA the following day.”
Magistrate Danielle Mansour said she accepted the offences happened when Whitfield was going through an extremely difficult time in her life and accepted the second drink-driving incident was still considered a “first offence” because she hadn’t been convicted of the first drink-driving offence at the time.
Ms Mansour convicted Whitfield of all the offences, fined her $1100, put her on a community correction order for 12 months and disqualified her from driving for six months with a further 12 months on an interlock order.
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