'Not the smartest idea': Man drinks six beers in car wreckage to ease pain of broken pelvis while waiting for help
www.nzherald.co.nz
/cloudfront-ap-southeast-2.images.arcpublishing.com/nzme/XZSWCG47W7INWCXWYF6UNHZERM.jpg "Raglan community board member Chris Rayner has been given a final warning by a judge to stop drink driving - or he will go to jail. Photo / Waikato District Council")
/cloudfront-ap-southeast-2.images.arcpublishing.com/nzme/GVTUITHPWVKFU7LYQQGVZ4322M.jpg)
A community board member who crashed his car while returning to Raglan decided to kill some time waiting for help by opening a six-pack of beer he'd just bought at the supermarket.
It was a dark, wet, and windy night on September 9 last year, and Raglan man Chris Rayner was heading home after having a beer with his brother in Hamilton when he lost control of his car on State Highway 23.
He'd been rounding the sweeping bend near Waitetuna Rd and after over-correcting, smashed sideways through a fence and into a strainer post, seriously injuring his pelvis.
Rayner told media outside the Hamilton District Court this afternoon that of all the things to fall next to him during the impact was the six-pack.
He returned a level of 179mlg. The legal limit is 50mlg.
But Judge Noel Cocurullo was more concerned about the pattern of behaviour that was now emerging as this incident was now his third drink driving conviction.
Rayner had two convictions in 2016 just two months apart, but this latest charge had the highest reading.
"This time you have hurt yourself pretty badly and I'm worried that if you continue with this attitude that it's okay to drink and drive that you will kill yourself.
"Just as worse, I'm concerned that you will kill your best friend that might be in the car with you or a member of the public that you don't know.
"You come back to my court for number four and I'm going to send you to jail."
With that, Judge Cocurullo said he was putting a final warning on his court file for another judge to see if he ever commits the same offence again.
"You need to learn from this before it's too late and you end up seriously hurt or worse."
On a charge of driving with an excess breath alcohol level, he was convicted and sentenced to nine months of supervision, and 80 hours' community work.
He was also given an alcohol interlock disqualification of 28 days and will then be subject to interlock legislation.
Rayner was also ordered to pay medical expenses of $80 and analyst fees of $111.
Outside court, Rayner was frank about what happened but said because of his previous convictions he always carried a breathalyzer to ensure he was okay to drive.
"I was coming up around that corner in the wet and wind and I lost control of the vehicle. I'm not sure if it was because of anything on the surface ... and went into the paddock.
"In my attempts to regain control of the vehicle I put the accelerator on to avoid a block of trees but instead hit a strainer post.
"After I crashed I was stuck in my vehicle, for about an hour ... I didn't want to do any more damage and I thought it was my femur that was broken and kind of trapped and the one thing that landed right next to me from the back of the car was a six-pack of beers.
"I couldn't find my water bottle and not thinking about the consequences of the blood alcohol I drank the six-pack while waiting for the ambulance."
Asked if it helped with the pain, he replied "yeah, obviously".
Asked about the judge's comments about killing himself or someone else next time, Rayner said he mustn't have understood the steps he had taken to avoid the situation "and it just looks like on paper that it's going up and up".
One of those steps was buying a breathalyser and using it, he said.
Whether he would drive drunk again, he said he had been subjected to a zero alcohol licence since the crash and would be with his sentencing, "so I'll just get used to it".
www.nzherald.co.nz
A community board member who crashed his car while returning to Raglan decided to kill some time waiting for help by opening a six-pack of beer he'd just bought at the supermarket.
It was a dark, wet, and windy night on September 9 last year, and Raglan man Chris Rayner was heading home after having a beer with his brother in Hamilton when he lost control of his car on State Highway 23.
He'd been rounding the sweeping bend near Waitetuna Rd and after over-correcting, smashed sideways through a fence and into a strainer post, seriously injuring his pelvis.
Rayner told media outside the Hamilton District Court this afternoon that of all the things to fall next to him during the impact was the six-pack.
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In the hour he waited for help stuck in the wreckage of his car, he drank all six beers to help kill the pain he was in from his broken pelvis, a move his counsel Ellie Dyche said he later realised "wasn't the smartest idea" as it pushed his blood alcohol level even higher.He returned a level of 179mlg. The legal limit is 50mlg.
But Judge Noel Cocurullo was more concerned about the pattern of behaviour that was now emerging as this incident was now his third drink driving conviction.
Rayner had two convictions in 2016 just two months apart, but this latest charge had the highest reading.
"This time you have hurt yourself pretty badly and I'm worried that if you continue with this attitude that it's okay to drink and drive that you will kill yourself.
"Just as worse, I'm concerned that you will kill your best friend that might be in the car with you or a member of the public that you don't know.
"You come back to my court for number four and I'm going to send you to jail."
With that, Judge Cocurullo said he was putting a final warning on his court file for another judge to see if he ever commits the same offence again.
"It's a simple choice, you're either having a drink ... and nowhere near a car driving. Or, you're the sober driver having nothing to drink."You need to learn from this before it's too late and you end up seriously hurt or worse."
On a charge of driving with an excess breath alcohol level, he was convicted and sentenced to nine months of supervision, and 80 hours' community work.
He was also given an alcohol interlock disqualification of 28 days and will then be subject to interlock legislation.
Rayner was also ordered to pay medical expenses of $80 and analyst fees of $111.
Outside court, Rayner was frank about what happened but said because of his previous convictions he always carried a breathalyzer to ensure he was okay to drive.
He said he only had one and a half of his brother's home brew beer before heading to Pak'nSave for groceries and heading home."I was coming up around that corner in the wet and wind and I lost control of the vehicle. I'm not sure if it was because of anything on the surface ... and went into the paddock.
"In my attempts to regain control of the vehicle I put the accelerator on to avoid a block of trees but instead hit a strainer post.
"After I crashed I was stuck in my vehicle, for about an hour ... I didn't want to do any more damage and I thought it was my femur that was broken and kind of trapped and the one thing that landed right next to me from the back of the car was a six-pack of beers.
"I couldn't find my water bottle and not thinking about the consequences of the blood alcohol I drank the six-pack while waiting for the ambulance."
Asked if it helped with the pain, he replied "yeah, obviously".
After the farmer, his friends - including a retired paramedic - came to the scene to help and were able to provide affidavits to the court to confirm he was drinking the beer to help with the pain.Asked about the judge's comments about killing himself or someone else next time, Rayner said he mustn't have understood the steps he had taken to avoid the situation "and it just looks like on paper that it's going up and up".
One of those steps was buying a breathalyser and using it, he said.
Whether he would drive drunk again, he said he had been subjected to a zero alcohol licence since the crash and would be with his sentencing, "so I'll just get used to it".
