Drink-driver who hit teenager jailed for three years

Lincoln Hapeta two days after the crash. Picture / Richard Robinson

He had been banned from driving for life for repeat drink driving, he was facing another drink driving charge but on January 20 Andrew Dowling was said to be so drunk he could barely walk when his car hit a teenager.

It was 11pm and 16-year-old Lincoln Hapeta was standing on the footpath waiting for a lift.

"Suddenly this car was in my face, all I remember is holding on to my cousin and asking him to help me and spitting out teeth," he said.

His liver was torn, he suffered cuts and bruises to most of his body, and doctors told his father, Ralph Timoteo, to expect the worse.

Doctors later told his mother, Kirsten Hapeta, that between 30 and 40 hospital staff were involved in the surgery that saved Lincoln's life - at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Lincoln Hapeta spent seven weeks in hospital complicated by an infection in his lungs. He now wears a plate with two false teeth which he will not be able to get replaced until he is 18.

In the Manukau District Court yesterday Dowling, 36, was sentenced to a total of three years and one month in jail and ordered to pay reparation to Lincoln's family of $5000 when he is released.

Mrs Hapeta told the Herald she wondered where the money - if it ever came - would go. "It's a massive cost to the taxpayer," she said.

"It's pretty scary. We were initially concerned that this guy could do it again and again and again."

Lincoln said he could not play sport this year because of his liver injuries.

He had also fallen behind at school and was trying to catch up and was embarrassed by having to wear a dental plate.

"It's not really cool, I think I'm pretty unlucky to have been in this guy's path."

Judge John Clapham described Dowling as a recidivist drink driver.

Dowling was facing drink driving charges when he ran over Lincoln, he had four previous convictions for drink driving, he had been banned from driving for life in 1997, and been charged with breaching that ban at least four times.

Dowling was also charged with driving with an excess breath alcohol of 1100 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath on October 12 last year, and with breaching a community work sentence.

But on January 20, still waiting for his charges to be dealt with, Dowling was again drinking.

Friends said he was so drunk when he agreed to drive two of them home he could barely walk or perform simple tasks.

The court heard his passengers shouted at him when they saw Lincoln Hapeta on Raglan St in Mangere.

Dowling did not react, hitting the 16-year-old.

His passengers told him to stop but he said, "Oh f**** that, I don't have a licence."

For Dowling, Desmond O'Connor his client was remorseful and was trying to address his drinking which he turned to when depressed.

Judge John Clapham sentenced Dowling to six weeks in jail for breaching community work, to be served concurrently with a 10-month jail sentence for driving with a breath alcohol limit of 1100 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath on October 12.

Dowling was sentenced to two years and three months in jail for driving under the influence causing injury to Lincoln, and 12 months for failing to stop; those sentences to be served concurrently.

Judge Clapham said the sentence for drink driving on October 12 and the sentence for the hit-and-run needed to be cumulative. It would send the wrong message if all the sentences were lumped into one concurrent sentence.