Bundaberg Fraser Coast Gympie high range drink drivers that faced court
Drink driving is one of the biggest contributors to road injuries in Queensland - just this year more than 2000 were busted in Wide Bay alone. Now, some of the region’s high-range drink drivers from Bundaberg, Fraser Coast and Gympie can be revealed. Full list.
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It’s one of the ‘Fatal Five’ and among the biggest contributors to road fatalities in Queensland but drink driving remains a major problem on Wide Bay roads.
According to the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q) drink driving is a contributing factor in more than 18 per cent of traffic fatalities in Australia, and 21 per cent of fatalities in Queensland.
Each year police across the state do about three million breath tests each year, detecting more than 16,5000 drink driving offences.
According to police data, in the last 12 months approximately 2185 drink driving offences were recording in the Wide Bay policing district.
We took a deep dive into some of the high range drink driver cases which came before local courts in Bundaberg, the Fraser Coast and Gympie in the last 18 months.
Abbie Lee Davidson Halmarson - Bundaberg
A Bundaberg mother caught drink driving told the court she was a good person who messed up when she returned a BAC reading of 0.157.
Abbie Lee Davidson Halmarson represented herself and pleaded guilty in Bundaberg Magistrates Court in early November to driving while more than three times the limit.
Police pulled Halmarson’s Toyota Camry over on Scotland Street at 6.50pm on September 12, where she told officers she was “f----- in the head” and was having difficulty comprehending questions.
She admitted she had been drinking beer since 11am that day.
Halmarson was find $950 deferred to SPER and received a six month disqualification from driving.
A conviction was recorded.
A 43-year-old Gympie man, who blew more than five times the legal limit after crashing his car into a paddock at Tuchekoi, was placed on 18 months’ probation.
Dean James Power pleaded guilty in the Gympie Magistrates Court to driving without due care and attention and while under the influence of alcohol on Tuchekoi Rd on July 12, 2020.
Police prosecutor Alison Johnstone said Power returned a BAC of 0.251 after missing the intersection of Tuchekoi Rd and Kenilworth Skyring Creek Rd, and driving into a paddock, coming to rest 60m from the road.
Power was placed on probation for 18 months, and disqualified from driving for the same amount of time.
David Phillip Emery - Fraser Coast
A drunk Learner driver, who ran up the back of another vehicle, punched a police officer at the scene of the crash after becoming aggressive with the paramedics trying to treat him.
David Phillip Emery, 43, pleaded guilty in Hervey Bay Magistrates Court to assaulting a police officer, drink driving, driving without due care and attention, driving unaccompanied as a learner and not displaying L plates.
The court heard the two-car crash happened at Duckinwilla when Emery, driving a white sedan, approached a line of traffic at roadworks and failed to slow down.
He collided with the rear of a four-wheel drive.
When police arrived, he was laying beside the sedan.
Blood tests later released he had a reading of .153 blood alcohol content.
Emery was fined $2500 and he was disqualified from driving for 12 months.
Robert Noel Fisher - Bundaberg
Robert Noel Fisher was ordered to serve 80 per cent of his 10-year jail sentence when he faced court for a drunken crash which resulted in the death of a pedestrian from the Sunshine Coast.
Fisher pleaded guilty in Bundaberg District Court to dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance.
A man, who was driving to the gym that same night, saw Fisher driving in Bundaberg and was so concerned he called police and followed, the court heard.
Fisher was not driving with his headlights on.
At one stage, he did a ‘doughnut’, was driving at speed and making dangerous manoeuvres including reversing into oncoming traffic and speeding through a roundabout.
It all ended when he took off at speed from a traffic light and lost control near Red Rooster on the corner of Bourbong and Bingera Streets.
David Mallett, a grandfather who was in Bundaberg on business from the Sunshine Coast, was hit by the car and died at the scene.
The court heard Fisher had an 11-page rap sheet and was on bail at the time for another dangerous operation of a vehicle charge.
As well the jail sentence, Fisher was disqualified absolutely from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence.
A 20 year-old Gympie man who escaped with his life after his car slammed into a tree at Imbil was more than four times the legal limit at the time of the crash.
Joseph Thomas Bell only suffered a broken nose when he took a slow-sweeping corner too fast on Kandanga-Imbil Rd and slammed into a tree, leaving paramedics to cut him from the wreckage, Gympie Magistrates Court heard in July.
Police prosecutor Melissa Campbell told the court Bell was driving home from an unnamed hotel on the night of April 30, 2021 when the crash happened.
She said the vehicle sustained major damage, and Bell didn’t remember a lot of what happened.
Sgt Campbell said he was taken to Gympie Hospital where a blood test revealed a blood-alcohol reading of 0.220.
Bell pleaded guilty to drink-driving, and was fined $1200 and disqualified from driving for 12 months by Mr Hillan.
A conviction was recorded.
David Patrick Sjerp - Fraser Coast
In October, David Patrick Sjerp pleaded guilty in Maryborough District Court to multiple offences, including drink driving, unlawful use of a vehicle, robbery with personal violence and failing to dispose of a syringe.
The court heard Sjerp rammed the back of the family’s car, which had the two parents and their three children inside, while driving down a Maryborough street.
Bystanders who witnessed the handbag theft and assault took matters into their own hands and helped retrieve the woman’s bag.
Sjerp then tried to leave the scene in his car, but it had become entangled with the rear of the family’s car.
When one of the bystanders told him to get out of the car, Sjerp said “I’m going to jail, I’m f**ked”.
During his sentencing remarks, Michael Byrne said “no truer word could be spoken, at least in regards to the first part of that sentence”.
The court heard Sjerp, who returned a blood alcohol reading of .233 when police caught up with him that night, had been in a downward spiral after his relationship collapsed and he was unable to see his children.
Sjerp was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars.
Parole eligibility was set for February 2, 2022.
He was also disqualified from driving until October, 2026.
Herbert Noel Fischer - Bundaberg
Young dad Herbert Noel Fischer pleaded guilty in Bundaberg Magistrates Court in June to driving under the influence of liquor and driving while disqualified by court.
The court heard police were notified by a resident in Burnett Heads that a man was hooning and driving his car inappropriately.
Officers conducted patrols and found the car that was described to them in the driveway of a Burnett Heads property where they then spoke to Fischer.
During an interview Fischer told police he had consumed about 12 beers before driving.
He participated in a breath test which returned a reading of 0.153.
Checks also revealed Fischer was disqualified from driving by a court order.
Fischer received a total of $2000 in fines and two licence disqualifications, one for 12 months and another for two years.
Convictions were recorded.
Chloe Elizabeth Spillane - Gympie
Hospitality worker Chloe Elizabeth Spillane, 37, pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of liquor and obstructing police in the Gympie Magistrates Court in August, stemming from an incident on Anzac Day.
The court heard police were called to the scene of a car crash at the corner of Louisa St and Channon St at about 7pm on April 25, and found a white Toyota with damage to the front and bonnet.
Spillane was found at the scene trying to jump-start the vehicle, appeared unsteady on her feet and had slurred speech when she told an officer she was the owner and driver of the vehicle.
The court heard Spillane was “abusive and argumentative”, and was “unable to follow simple instructions” given to her by the officers.
Spillane returned a breath test reading of .328, more than six times the legal limit and “close to a level where people die of alcohol poisoning”.
Spillane was placed on 18 months’ probation, given 60 hours community service, and banned from driving for 20 months.
Brodie-Lee Louise Reardon - Bundaberg
A young woman learnt the hard way the importance of keeping track of how much you drink before you get behind the wheel after crashing her car on a residential street.
Brodie-Lee Louise Reardon, 23, pleaded guilty in Bundaberg Magistrates Court in January to driving under the influence of liquor after blowing a reading of 0.164.
On November 18 police were called to a crash on Sims Rd where a car had left the road and collided with brick garden edging.
Reardon told police she was driving back home from the East End Hotel and was eating a sausage roll at the time of the incident.
She told police she had only consumed a maximum of four to five beers but then said she was unsure of how much she had actually drunk.
Reardon was fined $1900 and was disqualified from holding a licence for 14 months.
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Originally published as Bundaberg Fraser Coast Gympie high range drink drivers that faced court
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