Council worker who crashed his grader into fire truck has sentence delayed

Richard John Mazurak, 50, was ordered to contact NSW Community Corrections within 24 hours to have a duty report prepared.

Corowa Local Court magistrate Melissa Humphreys wants to find out whether Mazurak will be suitable for supervision and possibly any unpaid community service work.

He had been due to be sentenced on appearing in court on Thursday, March 28, but that will now take place on April 22.

Mazurak previously pleaded guilty to charges of negligent driving, driving with a mid-range prescribed concentration of alcohol and licence expired within the previous two years.

He had downed up to five beers in 80 minutes in the time leading up to the crash, which injured a firefighter who then had to be treated at hospital.

The fire had broken out on Bullecourt Road, near Whitehead Street, on February 4 about 1.25pm.

This led to Mazurak being contacted in order to collect a grader from the Federation Council yards.

His job was to create a fire break to help firefighters in their efforts to extinguish the blaze.

After he got there, Mazurak spoke to firefighters then headed east on Bullecourt Road to create the break near a railway line.

Soon afterwards, the wind changed direction and the smoke from the grass fire washed over the grader, so thick that visibility was cut to zero.

Mazurak stopped then when he saw a gap in the smoke he continued on before visibility was again lost.

While NSW Rural Fire Service volunteers stopped their truck, Mazurak continued on. He then crashed into the stationary tanker.

A firefighter, 28, hit his head on the truck as a result of the crash, suffering facial injuries.

Mazurak then spoke to other firefighters before leaving. Police gave him a breath test, which was positive.

He later provided a blood alcohol reading of 0.09 on being subjected to a breath analysis at the Corowa police station.

Mazurak told police he had up to five Carlton Dry cans between 1pm and 2.20pm.