Tahlia O’Grady: Unlicensed driver on drugs during police pursuit before head-on crash
A magistrate has blasted the “reckless, selfish decisions” of a young woman who was on a cocktail of methylamphetamine, heroin and cannabis when she led police on a pursuit reaching speeds of 140km/h before crashing into an oncoming car.
Central Coast
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An unlicensed driver was on drugs and talking on the phone when she sped away from police on the wrong side of the road, forcing cars to swerve before ploughing into a 4WD, a court has heard.
Tahlia O’Grady, 21, of Wyee, pleaded guilty in Wyong Local Court on Wednesday to failing to stop during a police pursuit; driving while never having held a licence; using a mobile phone while driving; possessing a prohibited drug and driving under the influence of drugs.
An agreed set of police facts, tendered in court, state police were patrolling San Remo on Friday, March 13, when they noticed O’Grady driving a black Subaru hatchback on Liamena Rd at 5.37pm.
Travelling behind her in convoy was a gold coloured hatchback, which police had information to suspect it was involved in a dive by shooting at San Remo two days earlier.
Police followed the two vehicles into Goorama Rd and saw O’Grady was holding a mobile phone in her hand.
When the cars turned onto the Pacific Highway police activated their lights and sirens and initially O’Grady started to pull over but then accelerated away, overtaking cars and running a red light outside North Lakes Shopping Centre.
The facts state she then crossed onto the wrong side of the Pacific Highway where at least three vehicles had to “brake and rapidly veer to avoid a collision”.
Police terminated the pursuit as she reached speeds of up to 140km/h as she crossed Wallarah Creek Bridge.
Police saw O’Grady again cross onto the wrong side of the road causing more cars to veer off the road and into an embankment to avoid a collision.
About 30m past the Charmhaven speed camera, police saw the front passenger side of O’Grady’s vehicle collide head on with a Toyota Prado sending the 4WD rolling into bushland.
O’Grady’s car ended up in a ditch about 70m away.
Police arrested O’Grady as she was climbing out of the driver’s side window.
“The accused stated, `I don’t know why I didn’t stop, I always stop, I was on the phone talking to them and they kept on telling me to punch it, telling me to punch it’,” the facts read.
“The accused further stated that she had smoked cannabis earlier that day and consumed heroin and methylamphetamine in the days prior.”
Police searched the car and found 0.1g of methylamphetamine.
Incredibly the driver of the 4WD and their passenger also escaped without serious injuries.
O’Grady’s solicitor, leading criminal lawyer Brad Kernick, told the court the young mother-of-two had secured a bed in a residential rehabilitation facility at Malabar and was “next in line” to be accepted.
He conceded had she been older and not taken steps to enter rehab there would be no other appropriate sentence than imprisonment but sought she serve her sentence in the community.
The magistrate agreed, noting O’Grady’s “genuine remorse and contrition” but admonished her “reckless, selfish decisions”.
“Young lady you are lucky you’re still alive,” she said.
“Young lady you are lucky you’re not here facing more serious charges of killing people.”
The magistrate sentenced O’Grady to a 20-month intensive corrections order, which is the court’s equivalent of a jail sentence but served in the community.
She was also put on a conditional release order and disqualified from driving for three years.
The magistrate said the sentence and the good behaviour bond were like a “Damocles’ sword” hanging over her for the next three years, should she commit any other offence.