AN Orange woman who crashed her car while under the influence of alcohol was disqualified from driving for six months, but the man who drove to her aid, also while under the influence, was not convicted.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The two cases came before the magistrate, Terry Lucas, in Orange Local Court on Thursday and were defended by solicitor Mick Madden.
Mr Madden argued his first client, Amber Cashel, 33, believed she was under the limit when she left work in Forest Reefs after drinking two glasses of wine on November 27.
However, she hit some gravel, came off the road and collided with a post.
Mr Madden said police must have accepted her version of events because she was not given a ticket for negligent driving.
“While it is conceded there was a level of intoxication it is in the low range of the mid range,” Mr Madden said.
The singer’s blood-alcohol reading was 0.09.
On the same day in court Mr Madden’s next client, who was also charged with mid-range drink-driving with a blood-alcohol reading of 0.083, was caught after Cashel called him to the scene of her accident.
The man is not named because he is not convicted of an offence.
Mr Madden argued his client attended the scene on a “good Samaritan” basis.
“It was based on emotion,” he said.
Mr Madden said when the man pulled up at the accident police spoke with him and one officer remarked “you smell of alcohol.”
Regardless, the man was asked to help police locate a tow-truck driver because his relative was one.
He was then asked to do traffic management and helped clean up the scene by putting Cashel’s vehicle on the tow truck.
But after his assistance he was taken back to the station and breath tested.
Mr Madden said the 37-year-old had learned a great deal from the PCYC Traffic Offenders Intervention Program.
Mr Lucas told him it was a “stupid thing to do”.
“That is what the NRMA is for,” he said.
He gave the man a section 10 good behaviour bond for nine months while Cashel was also fined $900.
