Kevin Robert Cumner sentenced for Calliope head-on crash
A smelter worker wiped away tears as he was sentenced for crashing his car into two families, with the cause of the smash now revealed.
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A Boyne Smelter worker wiped away tears as he was sentenced for crashing his car into two family vehicles while intoxicated.
Kevin Robert Cumner, 55, pleaded guilty in Gladstone Magistrates Court this week to charges including dangerous operation of a vehicle while intoxicated, drink driving, failing to comply with duties of a driver in a crash, and consuming liquor on a road.
The court heard in April Cumner had been drinking alcohol and had taken “a significant quantity of prescription valium” before driving at Calliope.
He then returned home that evening and got an Esky of alcohol which he put in the car.
He also placed two drinks in the vehicle’s cup holders before driving again.
The court heard Cumner pulled onto Sunpoint Way “while starting to fall asleep”.
He drove on the wrong side of the road on Sunpoint Way, hitting a traffic sign head-on.
Cumner continued driving on the wrong side of Central Ave before hitting a parked vehicle.
That did not stop him.
He kept driving on the wrong side of Central Ave and collided head-on with a Toyota Prado and a second vehicle travelling behind the Prado.
The two vehicles contained families with children.
A woman in one of the vehicles suffered a minor hand injury and the other occupants were treated for shock.
Cumner was not injured and he was taken to hospital.
The court did not hear what Cumner’s drink-driving reading was, only that it was “very low.”
It was told Cumner, a Boyne Smelter worker, had a one-page traffic history with no similar offending, and no criminal history.
Solicitor Sophie-Lee Oliver said this was Cumner’s first time before a court.
She tendered numerous documents for him including character references, as well as an apology letter to the people who were involved in the crash, and an apology letter to the court.
Ms Oliver said Cumner had recently gone through an “adverse separation” with his wife of 23 years, and he had also lost three family members in recent years which had resulted in his mental health “significantly deteriorating.”
She said in the months prior to Cumner’s offending, he had not been sleeping well and had struggled with depression.
“That’s why he was taking the sleeping tablets on the day of the offence,” Ms Oliver said.
“He instructs that he only consumed one or two drinks of alcohol and the analysis certificate confirms that the alcohol range in his blood was very low.
“He is very remorseful for his offending – he notes he doesn’t remember the majority of the driving … his memory picks up when he awoke in hospital.”
As Cumner was being sentenced he became emotional and wiped away tears, with Magistrate Mary Buchanan noting he had shown “complete remorse”.
Ms Buchanan placed him on two years’ probation and disqualified him from driving for 16 months.
No convictions were recorded.
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Originally published as Kevin Robert Cumner sentenced for Calliope head-on crash
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