Max Cameron: Chudleigh farm manager in drink driving crash
A Tasmanian farm manager will have a permanent reminder of his folly after he fell asleep at the wheel while nearly three times the legal blood-alcohol limit, a court has heard.
Launceston
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A Tasmanian farm manager will have a permanent reminder of his folly after he fell asleep at the wheel while nearly three times the legal blood-alcohol limit, losing a finger in the resulting crash, a court has heard.
Chudleigh man Maxwell John Ralph Baillie Cameron, 29, pleaded guilty in Launceston Magistrates Court on Monday to charges of driving without due care and attention and driving while exceeding the prescribed alcohol limit.
Charges of driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor and failing to properly store a firearm were discontinued by the prosecution.
The court heard Cameron’s offending was detected about 3.05am on August 7 last year. A Tasmania Police unit witnessed Cameron’s Toyota LandCruiser come to a stop on Meander Valley Rd under the Bass Hwy at Travellers Rest.
Upon closer inspection, they saw the vehicle had suffered “extensive damage” including a smashed windshield and caved-in panels on the driver’s side.
Cameron told officers he had an accident when he attempted to take the wrong exit off the Bass Hwy, crashing into a wire barrier. Cameron had “trouble concentrating and finding words,” police prosecutor Deanna Wadley told the court.
Officers were able to locate the scene of the crash. There, they discovered paperwork belonging to Cameron, and the “defendant’s severed finger” – understood to be the ring finger on one of his hands. Another finger was fractured.
A subsequent analysis revealed Cameron’s blood-alcohol content to be 0.141 per cent, just shy of three times the legal limit.
Defence lawyer Grant Tucker told the court his client was well respected by his employer. He managed farms at Chudleigh and Nile, so would need a restricted work licence.
Mr Tucker said Cameron made a “spur of the moment” decision to drive home to Chudleigh from Launceston having been there to visit an old buddy.
“The night became a lot bigger than what he anticipated,” Mr Tucker said.
He told the court his client fell asleep at the wheel in the moments before the collision with the barrier. He said Cameron was “disappointed and embarrassed,” and his missing finger would be an “everyday reminder to him of the error of his ways”.
Magistrate Simon Brown noted this was Cameron’s second drink-driving offence, although the first occurred about a decade ago.
He fined Cameron $2000, ordered he pay costs and levies of $162.80, and disqualified him from driving for 12 months, postponed for 42 days to enable the application for a restricted licence.
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