Peter Ace Nibbs guilty of dangerous driving causing serious harm at Marrara

A well-regarded club rugby player and coach rolled his brother’s troopy at Marrara, ejecting his friend who became pinned under the vehicle, suffering horrific injuries, a court has heard. He then claimed the victim was the driver.

Fannie Bay man Peter Ace Nibbs, 30. Picture: Facebook

A well-regarded club rugby player and coach rolled his brother’s troopy at Marrara after the Northern Territory Rugby Union grand final last year, ejecting his friend who became pinned under the vehicle, suffering horrific injuries, a court has heard.

Fannie Bay man Peter Ace Nibbs, 30, then compounded his error by claiming his crushed friend was the driver, a position he maintained across three police interviews, Nibbs’ sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court at Darwin on November 28 heard.

Nibbs pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving causing serious harm.

The court heard the rollover occurred in the hours after last year’s NTRU grand final at Marrara on March 25.

After the grand final, Nibbs and three friends decided to continue the party at a licensed premises in Palmerston (the defendant had been drinking but Justice Sonia Brownhill accepted he was not intoxicated or affected by alcohol).

Justice Sonia Brownhill. Picture: File

The victim and another friend were unrestrained in the back of the troop carrier – the victim lying on his stomach, the other friend sitting on a mattress.

When leaving the car park, Nibbs “drove erratically whilst accelerating,” hitting a kerb, then overcorrecting into another kerb, ultimately causing the troopy to tip onto its side.

The victim was ejected from the vehicle, which came to land on him, the court heard.

Justice Brownhill said the injuries caused to the victim were nothing short of catastrophic, such that he will never be able to play rugby again.

“He [the victim] underwent spinal fusion surgery which fused three vertebrae with two stabilising rods and screws,” Justice Brownhill said.

“He had multiple fractures of his spine and ribs.

“He had air and fluid in the space around his lung and avulsion injury to his hip and flank which is where bone fragments are pulled away by the muscles.

Nibbs pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court at Darwin (pictured) to a charge of dangerous driving causing serious harm. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“He had bleeding into the space behind his abdominal organs and bruising and grazes.

“He was in hospital for about three weeks.”

Over the course of three police interviews, Nibbs maintained his crushed friend was in fact the driver.

Touching on his background, Justice Brownhill said Nibbs was born in Alice Springs and had spent various periods in Darwin for work and sport.

He had previously worked as a “youth carer and role model for disadvantaged young people,” the judge said, and was currently working for a concrete company at Timber Creek.

Nibbs had previously been in trouble in 2017, with convictions for aggravated assault and dangerous driving, but little offending outside that annus horribilis.

Although describing Nibbs’ offending as a “reckless act of deliberate erratic driving, which younger men frequently engage in, often in order to impress other young men,” Justice Brownhill concluded it was at the lower end of the spectrum of seriousness.

She sentenced Nibbs to a 13-month intensive corrections order, six months of which is to be served as home detention.

He was also barred from consuming, purchasing or possessing alcohol for the duration of the order.