Adrian Moss jailed for drunken car crash on Bungundarra Rd, Yeppoon

A Central Queensland dad was driving home from a day of fishing and drinking beers when he hit a teenage boy who was left fighting for his life and fearing he was going to ‘bleed out’.

The Police Forensic Crash Unit.

Married father of two Adrian Leslie Moss was driving home from a day of fishing and drinking beers when his life changed forever - and not just his.

The 36-year-old boilermaker turned off Woodbury Rd onto Bungundarra Rd, Yeppoon, in his Toyota Landcruiser about 8pm on January 19, 2024 - in front of him was a straight stretch of sealed road (100kmh speed limit) for more than 400m.

Up ahead, a 17-year-old boy who was with a friend, had legally pulled his ute over, about a metre off the road and to the left, to “answer nature’s call”.

There were no lights in the area.

Prior to where the boys were, there was a road sign for motorists with an “advisory” 60kmh limit as just beyond them there was a left-side turnoff and a bend in the road.

The 17-year-old was in the process of “going to the toilet” when he and his mate noticed Moss’s Landcruiser approaching because of its high beams.

Their ute had a flat-back tray with an aluminium dog box on it - something that would have reflected in Moss’s headlights which the two boys had to shield their eyes from.

The 17-year-old thought it would be safer to get up onto the tray of his ute so he sat against the dog box, facing Moss as he approached.

His left leg was hanging off the side of the tray towards the roadway, and his friend stood at the back of the ute.

Moss’s car left the sealed roadway and side-swiped the ute along with the 17-year-old’s leg - the boy felt “a gush and his car jolt” as a result.

The boy screamed to his mate that he’d been hit.

His mate grabbed his phone and used the light on it to reveal the serious injuries.

Moss drove past the ute after impact but he immediately turned his car around and went back to help.

He called Triple-0 and told the operator he was driving home from fishing and had “clipped a person.”

Moss told the operator he was driving at 80kmh to 90kmh at the time.

Crown prosecutor Josh Phillips. File photo.

Moss rendered assistance to the injured boy (as did the boy’s friend) in accordance with instructions from the Triple-0 operator.

While on the phone to Triple-0, Moss said that “it was all my fault”.

The operator told Moss that he was doing “an amazing job” and Moss replied: “I haven’t done an amazing job - I caused this all.”

Moss also told the operator “not to sugar coat it” and that it was his fault.

The injured boy’s father and brother arrived at the scene and saw the extent of his injuries - his mother eventually arrived also but the boy asked his dad and brother not to let her see him.

The boy ultimately lost consciousness - he later said in his victim impact statement that he thought he was going to die beside the road, he thought he was going to bleed out.

His injuries included, but were not limited to, a fracture of the left distal femur, open complex fracture of the left ankle with subtalar dislocation, large left-ankle degloving with significant soft tissue loss, and a complete transaction of the achilles tendon.

After police arrived at the scene, Moss told them he was driving home from fishing and “next minute” he looked up and hit the boy who was sitting on the ute.

Moss told officers that he had consumed 10 to 12 beers since that morning, and he immediately expressed genuine concern for the injured boy.

After being breath tested, Moss returned a blood alcohol concentration of .125.

He told police: “I f***ed up - I will wear it all. The young fellow on the side of the road didn’t do anything wrong.”

The injured boy was flown by helicopter to a Rockhampton hospital before being transferred to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital where eight surgeries occurred.

The District Court at Rockhampton heard the surgery the boy received post-incident was “life saving.”

In court, Moss accepted this version of events and pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a vehicle causing grievous bodily harm while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance.

The court heard that at the time of the vehicle collision, the concentration of alcohol in Moss’s blood was likely to have been between .139 and .166.

Chief Judge Brian Devereaux said that would have had a “significant impairment” on Moss’s ability to drive.

Judge Devereaux added that “essentially the dangerousness” was that Moss was not watching sufficiently where he was going, or he couldn’t judge properly and didn’t control the car.

Judge Devereaux said speed was not an important aspect of Moss’s dangerous driving given the limit was 100kmh, “but the advisory sign was there for a purpose.”

In his victim impact statement, the teen boy said members of his family still had nightmares about what happened.

He said prior to the incident he was a healthy and life-loving young man and since, he’d undergone multiple surgeries and had dozens of medical appointments in Brisbane, as well as psychology sessions.

He spoke of the fear he would lose his foot and about being told there was a high risk of amputation in the future.

He said he was “scared” about his next upcoming surgery in Sydney.

He said he still rarely sleeps to this day as a result of what he’d been through, and he felt a “complete loss of self-dignity as a helpless patient.”

He said socially he’d “disappeared” and he lived with chronic pain.

Crown Prosecutor Josh Phillips, who tendered Moss’s criminal and traffic records, described the former as “minor” and the latter as “long”.

“He (Moss) does have a long record of traffic offences - 18 of them between March of 2006 when he was 18 (years old) and April of 2023 when he was 35,” Mr Phillips said.

“They are mostly for speeding.

“He has been dealt with for careless driving (in 2021).”

In relation to the stretch of road where the incident happened, Mr Phillips said there was a “long enough” amount of time for a driver “on a straight road at night where it’s poorly lit but you’ve got your high beams on, to see effectively a Christmas tree off the side of the road, having regard to the aluminium dog box that stretched across the back of the (17-year-old victim’s) ute.”

“So it (dog box) is a large reflective object.

“The significance of that in the context of this case plainly is that, for an appreciable period of time there was something that should have reflected substantially - and indeed the (victim) and his friend did need to take action for their part to avoid the glare of the high beams as he (Moss) got closer,” Mr Phillips said.

The Crown Prosecutor said Moss, from a “very early point”, had accepted responsibility for what happened.

Barrister Maree Willey. File photo.

Barrister Maree Willey said Moss, a married father of two, had family and friends in court to support him.

Ms Willey said since completing Year 12 at school, Moss had worked as a boilermaker.

She noted he did not have any previous drink driving offences on his traffic history.

“On the day of the offending... (Moss) had been out fishing with a friend of his - he had consumed XXXX Gold beers,” Ms Willey said.

“From his friend’s house to his house is approximately an eight-minute drive.

“There’s no evidence of any particular recklessness, for example, in the lead-up to the collision itself.”

Ms Willey said after Moss returned to the scene and saw the boy’s injuries, he immediately called Triple-0 and provided assistance until paramedics and police arrived.

“He also rendered assistance as per the Triple-0 operator’s instructions in relation to obtaining... a sheet to help with the bleeding for example.”

Ms Willey said a doctor who Moss saw just days after the incident, noted in her report that Moss expressed feelings of “deep guilt and self blame” and reported “persistent thoughts about the person he injured and voiced a sense that he had irreparably damaged another person’s life.”

The barrister said she had taken Moss through the victim impact statement “in full”.

“And certainly his response is absolutely consistent with the remorse that, in my submission, he’s shown from the very outset,” Ms Willey said.

Chief Judge Devereaux sentenced Moss to four years’ jail, suspended after serving 15 months, for an operational period of five years.

Moss was also disqualified from driving for two years.

Originally published as Adrian Moss jailed for drunken car crash on Bungundarra Rd, Yeppoon