Victim’s family rubbishes horror crash driver’s apology claim

THE family of a man critically injured in a smash at Humpty Doo last year has rubbished claims the driver who caused the crash had apologised, as he claimed in cour

Zachariah Thorbjornsen told the NT News he had made a ‘miraculous recovery’ from the injuries sustained in a horror crash last year

THE family of a man critically injured in a smash at Humpty Doo last year has rubbished claims the driver who caused the crash had apologised, as he claimed in court.

Adam Thomas Foster, 31, was fined $2500 after pleading guilty in the Darwin Local Court to dangerous driving causing serious harm following the horrific crash last November.

His lawyer, Peter Maley, told the court Foster had apologised multiple times to the family of the injured man, Zachariah Thorbjornsen, and checked in with them once a week for a month after the accident.

TOP STORIES

CHARGES laid over Tiger Brennan double-fatal crash

BOOM time: Territory Day fireworks picture gallery

TERRITORY fraudsters struck off by ASIC

YOUNG thieves steal 50 hunting knives and machetes

MEANING of ‘abscond’ escapes Justice Minister

WHY I copped a cracker to my knackers

UBER Eats in Darwin — is your favourite restaurant on the list?

But Mr Thorbjornsen’s brother Jerome told the NT News Foster had never apologised, nor checked in with the family.

“At the time, if he’d done those things, apologised, checked in with us, we felt would have been very nice and probably would have put his mind to ease a bit at the same time,” he said.

“We don’t have hard feelings against him at this stage; it just wasn’t nice reading about them in the paper because they certainly weren’t true.”

Mr Thorbjornsen said it was not too late and the family would still welcome an apology.

OUR best value NT News subscription deal yet: $1 a week for the first 12 weeks

“I think, for Zachariah’s sake as well, it would be beneficial and I’m sure Zachariah would love to be able to say to him, ‘look, it’s OK, I’ve had a 100 per cent recovery,’ and put his mind at ease a bit.”

Zachariah, who was in a coma for nine days after the “catastrophic” crash but has since made a “miraculous recovery”, also rejected Foster’s claims of an apology.

“We didn’t even know his name for a while and I only knew his full name when I had to do a victim impact statement,” he said.

COMPETITION: WIN a motorhome or caravan, plus other daily prizes up for grabs!

“I wasn’t too fussed about correcting that mistake. At the end of the day it’s his conscience.”

Foster’s licence was also suspended for three months for his “momentary distraction”.