Hit and run driver cops fine for running down cyclist in Darwin CBD

A drink driver who knocked a cyclist off her pushbike in the Darwin CBD before driving off again without stopping was ‘extremely fortunate’ the woman wasn’t more seriously hurt, a court has heard.

A DRINK driver who knocked a cyclist off her pushbike in the Darwin CBD before driving off again without stopping was “extremely fortunate” the woman wasn’t more seriously hurt, a court has heard.

Aleisha Ellan Mohrwinkel pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court on Wednesday to drink-driving, failing to stop at a stop sign and leaving the scene of the crash on McLachlan St on August 24.

Prosecutor James Bainbridge said while the victim only suffered minor injuries as a result of the hit and run, she was “incredibly shaken by the incident”.

“The victim has come off her bike and landed on the roadway,” he said.

“It was quite traumatic for her.”

But Mohrwinkel’s lawyer, Matt Hubber, said his client was a working single mother rushing home to look after her children after “a few drinks” and simply didn’t see the cyclist.

“She panicked, she drove off, she realised there’d been contact, she assumed it was very minor,” he said.

Mohrwinkel was located by police and arrested a short time after the crash and Mr Hubber said she “knew she’d done the wrong thing” and “fessed up to police straight away”.

“She’s extremely ashamed by this, she ended up on the front of the paper the other day, your honour, so she has been named and shamed in the most public way in Darwin,” he said.

In handing Mohrwinkel a $1000 fine and a nine-month good behaviour bond, judge Greg Macdonald said she was “most fortunate” the cyclist was not more seriously injured.

“I’m not sure if you’ve ever been in a motorbike or a pushbike accident where you collided with the bitumen but it’s not very pleasant,” he said.

“You also then did not render any assistance to her — in some ways that’s more despicable than the other things that make up the combination of offending to which you’ve pleaded guilty today.”

Mr Macdonald said drink driving “puts people in the hospital or in graves”.

“Our death toll in the Northern Territory is many times what it is interstate, in large part because of drink driving,” he said.

But due to her “very good record” and “glowing references” Mr Macdonald said a fine and a bond was appropriate.