Lawrence Williams was sentenced in the Nelson District Court on a charge of dangerous driving causing injury. Photo / Tracy Neal
Lawrence Williams was sentenced in the Nelson District Court on a charge of dangerous driving causing injury. Photo / Tracy Neal
Two out of three driving offences racked up by Lawrence Morgan Williams have left someone injured, including the latest, in which his passenger was partially scalped.
Today, the 25-year-old was sentenced to community detention and disqualified from driving for a year after he admitted to a charge of dangerous driving causing injury.
Not only was his passenger left with a traumatic head injury, but his neck was also broken in the crash, which left him and Williams trapped and bleeding in their upside-down car.
“There needs to be a strong deterrent message here because of your continued very poor driving, which on two occasions has left someone injured,” Judge David Ruth said in the Nelson District Court.
Judge David Ruth told the 25-year-old there needed to be a strong deterrent from his continued offending. Photo / Tessa Jaine / Nelson Weekly
The court heard the crash occurred on the summer evening of February 4 this year when Williams was driving along the Motueka Valley Highway.
It was around 8pm, the weather was fine and the road was dry.
Williams entered a moderate right-hand turn in the 80km/h speed limit zone, but he was travelling too fast to safely take the corner and crossed the centre line.
His car then hit the rear door of an oncoming vehicle, causing minor damage. Due to the speed involved, Williams lost control of his vehicle and began swerving from side to side across the road.
His vehicle slid into a power pole, rolled over and landed on its roof in a small drainage ditch, causing significant damage to the car’s roof, including the passenger’s side of the roof, which was completely caved in.
Williams and his passenger were found injured and bleeding badly. They were taken by another vehicle to meet an ambulance and police in Motueka.
The crash resulted in the passenger being partially scalped and suffering a broken vertebra in his neck.
Judge Ruth noted Williams’ earlier offences - including in 2016, when he was convicted on a charge of careless driving and driving with excess breath alcohol - occurred as an under-20-year-old when a zero alcohol limit applied.
A year later, he was convicted on a charge of careless driving causing injury, and again driving drunk, but this time at almost twice the legal limit, with a reading of 715 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath.
Defence lawyer Alan Heward told the court Williams had since made considerable efforts to address his offending, including completing a defensive driving course and offering a $3000 emotional harm payment to his victim, who was in court for today’s sentencing.
Heward was also strongly opposed to the media’s application to take a photograph in court, saying Williams had already suffered a significant backlash from friends and associates in the community since the accident.
Judge Ruth allowed the photograph to be taken on the grounds that open justice should not be displaced by someone’s personal circumstances.
Judge Ruth noted the victim’s brief statement, which outlined the impact of the accident, including that it had left him out of work as a truck driver for six months, and that he continued to experience problems related to his injuries, which had prevented him from taking part in sports and hobbies he usually enjoyed.
Judge Ruth said it was to Williams’ credit he had pleaded guilty early on and had offered the emotional harm payment.
“It’s in these circumstances that I opt not to include community work in the [sentencing] mix,” he said.
Williams was instead sentenced to three months of community detention, disqualified from driving for the mandatory 12 months and ordered to pay $3000 in emotional harm reparation within seven days.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
