Joanne Parsons: Dromana drunk driver crashed into beach bollards
Not safe in Safety Beach: A Dromana student who topped up on booze and ploughed into poles now needs to top up her Myki.
South East
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A drunk drove while more than three times the limit, smashing through beachside bollards and ending up on the edge of a pedestrian walkway, a court has heard.
Joanne Parsons had to be taken to hospital after the booze-fuelled crash, with her blood sample showing a reading of .169.
The Dromana 44-year-old naturopath student pleaded guilty to careless and drink-driving charges at the online Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
The court heard police received reports of a woman sitting in the driver’s seat of a crashed car on Marine Drive in Safety Beach at 9pm on August 25 last year.
When they attended they got her out and sent her to Berwick Hospital for an assessment.
Cops paid her a visit on New Year’s Day to give her the bad news that her licence was being disqualified pending her court case.
Parsons’ defence lawyer said this sort of drinking behaviour was out of character for her client and she had been seeing a psychologist to help her through her mental health issues.
She said the single mum was studying a health science degree in the city and planned to be a naturopath upon completion.
She said this was her first and only criminal offence, and she knows she will have to continue to get public transport to her studies in the city for a fair while yet.
The lawyer had originally asked that the case be heard ‘on the papers’, meaning that it would be decided in chambers and not in a public courtroom.
Magistrate Fiona Stewart said she would not allow that as the offending was far too serious.
“The careless driving is an aggravating factor,” Ms Stewart said.
“It is a very high reading where the public was put at risk.
“It is not just her health and safety, it’s also the community’s.”
Ms Stewart said should this happen again the consequences would be far more severe.
Parsons was fined $600 and disqualified from driving for the mandatory minimum of 16 months, backdated to January this year.
No conviction was recorded.
