Anthony McKay has pleaded guilty after hitting a motorbike rider on a Cheltenham road
A careless motorist has left a motorcycle rider in hospital for more than a week with 15 broken ribs and a smashed arm after not giving way.
South East
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A careless motorist who failed to give away has left a motorcycle rider with 15 broken ribs and a smashed arm, a court has heard.
Anthony McKay, 47, pleaded guilty in Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court on April 8 to one count of careless driving and one count of failing to give way.
The court heard McKay had been driving in Cheltenham on November 20 last year, when he turned onto St Andrews Dr without giving way, subsequently hitting a motorcycle rider.
The force of the collision threw the rider over the car boot and onto the road on the other side of McKay’s car.
The rider was left with 15 broken ribs and a shattered arm that required surgery to fix, and spent more than a week in hospital.
Both McKay’s car and the motorbike had “moderate damage” and needed to be towed away.
McKay stayed at the scene of the smash, where he “made full and frank admissions to the police”.
“I decided to turn here, I thought I’d have enough time to go around … by the time I looked it was too late,” the court heard.
McKay said he “takes his licence and the safety of other road users seriously”, and “accepted full responsibility, especially for the victim”.
Magistrate Vincenzo Caltabiano said McKay’s offending was “an example of how things on the road can suddenly go wrong”.
“A lapse in concentration can lead to someone being very seriously hurt,” he said.
“We always have to be really careful on the road.”
Mr Caltabiano took into account McKay’s lack of employment and his guilty plea in the sentence.
“The penalty I’m about to impose is trying to balance all the things out,” he said.
“I acknowledge it’s a large amount of money for you, but it’s to reflect the seriousness of the offending.”
McKay was fined $500 without conviction.