Springvale Botanical Cemetery Cemetery landscape gardener Jake Richardson’s drink driving mistake
Dead tired: After a few drinks with his mates a Springvale cemetery gardener waited a few hours to let the booze out of his system. But he miscalculated, got behind the wheel and ended up in court.
South East
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A sleepy drink driver smashed his car into a light pole and a traffic sign then called his mum to help him flee the crash scene, a court has heard.
Jake Richardson, a 21-year-old cemetery landscape gardener, had been partying with mates before getting behind the wheel of his Ford sedan.
It was around 4.30am on March 8 this year and the P-plater thought he had waited long enough for all the alcohol to have left his system.
But he was wrong, and a combination of fatigue and booze caused him to lose control of his car as he drove along Evans Rd in Cranbourne West.
A dazed and confused Richardson got out of his smashed-up vehicle and called his mother, who came to pick him up and take him home.
Soon after a passer-by alerted police and when officers arrived they spoke to Richardson’s mum, who had come back there to organise to get the car towed.
She then went back home again and fetched her son, and he returned to the crash site.
He blew .08, saying he left because no one was around and although he was slightly injured, it was “not ambulance worthy” and his mum could sort it out.
He pleaded guilty to drink driving and failing to report an accident at Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
His defence lawyer told the court Richardson did try and do the right thing by “waiting it out”, but he made a miscalculation on how long alcohol would take to leave his system.
He said he hadn’t realised how tired he had become and thought he’d be OK to drive home.
He said his client, who had no priors, was a landscaper at the Springvale Botanical Cemetery and luckily for him his mum also worked at the same place and was able to drive him to his job.
Magistrate Timothy Gattuso said Richardson was lucky neither he nor anyone else was seriously hurt.
“It must have been some force to knock over a light pole and a traffic sign,” Mr Gattuso said.
“We often hear of tragedies as a result of collisions like this one, tragedies we hear all too often.
“(But) you have no priors, you are a young person and otherwise a productive member of the community.”
Richardson was placed on a good behaviour bond for eight months, fined $750, disqualified from driving for six months and ordered to do a road trauma awareness course.
No conviction was recorded.
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