Drunk and drug-affected drivers caused havoc on Wagga roads at the weekend, with police saying one man led officers on a high-speed chase and another narrowly avoided a life-threatening head-on crash.
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At 11.10pm on Friday, a 34-year-old Mount Austin man – who blew close to three times the legal blood alcohol limit – careered out of control on a residential street into the path of an oncoming car.
Acting Inspector Darren Brand from Wagga Local Area Command said he was amazed nobody was killed or seriously injured in the incident.
Police said the man lost control of his Nissan Navara on Stanley Street, Kooringal, crossed over to the wrong side of the road, mounted a kerb, hit a tree on the nature strip and then slid for 50 metres.
The driver of an oncoming car had to violently swerve to avoid “severe impact”.
The ute was towed, the driver’s licence was suspended on the spot and he will face Wagga court in November.
Acting Inspector Ryan Sheaf said the risk of serious injury was “extreme” and condemned the driver for putting others’ lives at risk by driving drunk.
At 11.45pm on Saturday, a 26-year-old Glenfield Park man gave highway patrol the slip on dirt roads outside of Junee, after he pretended to stop for a random breath test.
The fleeing driver reportedly clocked 120km/h on unsealed roads, throwing up plumes of dust, which he used to his advantage to temporarily escape.
Highway patrol officers ended the pursuit and headed to the address where the car was registered, arriving just moments before the Glenfield Park man arrived home.
While the driver had not been drinking, he tested positive to drug tests on the roadside and back at the Wagga police station.
He had already been disqualified from driving until March 2017.
He has been charged with failing to stop and driving while disqualified and will face court in November.
