Emotional P-plater led police on 140km/h pursuit along Nepean Highway in Seaford
When police finally caught up to a car that raced past them and reached double the 70km/h speed limit on the Nepean Highway they found a “crying and emotional” P-plater driver who explained he had “been through a lot of rough stuff this week”.
South East
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A crying, emotional P-plater who led police on a perilous pursuit was going so fast he didn’t realise he had overtaken a marked cop car.
The heartbroken 20-year-old raced past the police vehicle in Seaford on New Year’s Eve last year at double the posted 70km/h speed limit.
And when he was finally caught due to a build-up of traffic at an intersection, officers found him in tears behind the steering wheel.
The apprentice motor mechanic was upset because he’d a “rough week” after splitting up with his girlfriend.
Shawn Whitley pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and failing to stop on police direction charges at Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
The court heard a police patrol noticed a Holden Commodore, driven by Whitley, whiz past their car at great speed in the outside lane of Nepean Highway about 9pm on December 31 last year.
Police sped up to try and pull Whitley over but — at 110km/h — his car was getting away so they called off the pursuit for fear of causing a collision.
He drove over white lines and overtook other cars at an estimated 140km/h before becoming unstuck due to banked up traffic at Eel Race Rd.
Officers raced over to his car and found Whitley “crying and emotional” in the driver’s seat.
He admitted evading police, saying he had “angry emotions; been through a lot of rough stuff this week I didn’t talk to anyone about”.
His car was impounded on the spot.
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In court Whitley’s lawyer said he had broken up with his partner in the preceding week and was “unable to cope”.
The lawyer said his client was the male head of the household and didn’t have any male role models to talk to and was very remorseful for his “stupid” behaviour.
Magistrate Vicky Prapas said Whitley had been an extreme danger to himself and other drivers.
“You had absolutely no interest in the welfare of other road users,” Ms Prapas said.
“It was fortuitous it didn’t end badly.”
But she said his remorse, lack of priors, early plea and the fact “but for this, (he) seems like a nice kid” were factors in his favour.
Whitley was convicted and fined $1000, and disqualified from driving for 12 months.