Kartik Keshwa Nand crashed $50k vehicle into ditch near Highfields Road, pleads guilty to high range drink driving

A few drinks after work ended in disaster for an aspiring member of the navy, who crashed his $50k car into a ditch while nearly four times the legal limit.

A drink driver crashed his dream car into a ditch when a few post-work drinks ended in disaster.

Toowoomba Magistrates Court was told police responded to a single vehicle crash on Highfields Road about 12.20am on June 10, 2022.

When emergency services arrived they found a vehicle had crashed into an embankment, rolling onto its roof.

The driver, Kartik Keshwa Nand, was treated at the scene by Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics before being taken to Toowoomba Hospital with rib injuries.

Kartik Keshwa Nand, 32, appeared in Toowoomba Magistrates Court on August 29, 2022 where he pleaded guilty to high range drink driving.

The court was told officers breath tested the 32-year-old at the scene of the crash, and returned a positive reading, before later tests revealed he had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.194, almost four times the legal limit.

In court on Monday Nand pleaded guilty to high range drink driving.

His solicitor, Stuart Percy, told the court Nand had “drank far too much” after finishing work, and was on his way home to Highfields when the crash happened, which was why he came to the attention of police.

Mr Percy said his client had saved up to buy his $50,000 dream car, but had totalled it in the crash, and would be in debt as the damage was not covered by his insurance company.

A member of Rotaract and Pathfinders, Mr Percy said his client was engaged in the community and was going through the application process to join the Australian navy.

Declaring his client was ashamed and embarrassed for what happened, Mr Percy said the court was “not likely to see him in this building again”.

Magistrate Clare Kelly find Nand $1300, and disqualified him from holding a driver’s licence for six months. No conviction was recorded.