NSW Drink Driving & Traffic Offences

A drink driver who crashed his ute into poles at a major Warrnambool intersection on a trip to find a missing friend has lost his licence for 18 months.
Nicholas David Slorach, 26, of Wingrove Street, Fairfield, pleaded guilty this week in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court to drink driving and careless driving.

He was convicted, fined $750 with $69.70 costs and his driver's licence was cancelled for 18 months.

At 3.45am on May 22 Slorach was driving his green Holden utility south in Morriss Road when he approached the intersection with Raglan Parade. Slorach accelerated heavily through the intersection and skidded for about 50 metres before he impacted with two light traffic poles on the south side of the highway. The utility received moderate damage to the driver's side but neither the driver or passenger were injured. Slorach soon after recorded an alcohol breath test of .18.

Defence counsel Matthew Senia said his client had an excellent driving history, it was a one-off incident and Slorach was still in disbelief. He said Slorach had received a 25 per cent discount on his licence renewal because of his good driving record and he had borrowed $18,000 to buy the $22,000 utility which was now unusable. Slorach decided to drive after a friend failed to arrive home.

Slorach also attended a road safety awareness seminar and said a mother spoke of losing her daughter in a road accident which opened his eyes to just how many people were affected by car accidents. Magistrate Jonathan Klestadt said the defendant's record indicated it was an isolated out-of-character incident.

He said the monetary cost was insignificant compared to the personal cost which Slorach's accident could have caused.

Source: Warrnambool Standard 2.9.2011

I was giving advice to a person recently about an accident where a person died. Lovely woman and seemingly a tragic mistake. I found out afterwards that one of our staff was a good friend of the dead man. She was going to her funeral the next day and was shattered because he was "the life of the party". There are no winners in these cases and as lawyers we would love to never see another dangerous driving causing death or culpable driving case come through the door of our offices.

These incidents have a huge ripple effect. The families on both side are traumatized and problems flow on for years. Nobody goes out planning to kill someone with their driving. That is the nature of these events. But often speeding or drinking cause these needless deaths.