Suzanne Therese Brown in Noosa court after Mother’s Day crash

A magistrate has fined a woman and suspended her licence after she drunk-drove to a park to cry on Mother’s Day before causing a three-car crash. Read why here.

A mum-of-two who drunk-drove to cry at a park on Mother’s Day, before causing a three-vehicle crash was lucky not to have seriously injured or killed someone, a court has heard.

Police prosecutor Alison Johnstone said Tewantin woman Suzanne Therese Brown, 56, was spending Mother’s Day alone and drinking.

Sergeant Johnstone said the defendant’s daughter was not home and her son was joining the Army the next day, which was upsetting Brown.

The police prosecutor told Noosa Magistrates Court on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, that Brown admitted to police in an interview that she got into her car after consuming wine and went to cry at a park on the corner of Syvers Road and Cooroy-Noosa Road for a few hours before trying to drive home.

Brown was fined $2500 and barred from driving for two years as part of the punishment handed down.

The police prosecutor said about 8.10pm on May 8, Noosa Heads Police were notified of a three-vehicle traffic crash at Cooroy-Noosa Road in Tewantin.

Suzanne Therese Brown, 56, outside Noosa Courthouse with lawyer Andrew Wiseman.

The police prosecutor said the road was wet, it was dark and there were roadworks at the crash site.

When police attended the crash, initial investigations showed a white Hyundai i30 driven by Brown travelling eastbound had crossed onto the westbound side of the road and struck westbound vehicles head on.

Brown pleaded guilty to one count of did drive UIL and one count of dangerous operation of a vehicle and adversely affected by an intoxicating substance.

Brown measured a blood alcohol concentration of 0.229 per cent following the crash.

The police prosecutor said the driver of the vehicle that Brown first struck suffered whiplash, concussion and bruising.

“It was luck more than anything that there was no significant injuries or any person seriously injured or killed,” Sergeant Johnstone said.

The police prosecutor said imprisonment was in range for the type of offending.

Lawyer Andrew Wiseman said the cleaner and former seamstress would struggle to maintain her cleaning work without her licence.

He said Brown had several decades of driving experience and “barely a quarter page” of traffic offence history during that time.

“She cannot explain why she drove,” he said.

“She’s deeply remorseful, it’s clearly out of character.”

The lawyer said an appropriate outcome would be a community-based order for the defendant rather than a prison term.

Magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist said Brown was the architect of the three-vehicle crash.

“Deterrence is a significant feature of the sentence but it doesn’t seem to have any input,” he said.

“I’m starting to believe that deterrence in these sort of offences is just non-existent, generally.

“I’m willing to accept in your circumstance that personally as a deterrent that it would have some sort of input.”

He took into account the defendant’s early guilty plea, the references about her good character and also said it did not detract from the seriousness of the offence.

Brown was convicted and fined $2500 for both offences and on each of the offences received a 12-month licence disqualification, which was cumulative.

The conviction was recorded.

Originally published as Suzanne Therese Brown in Noosa court after Mother’s Day crash