'What a dick' - crash driver laments antics

SLOW PROGRESS: Former shearer Nicholas Watson, 23, is slowly on the mend after crashing his car in sand dunes at Castlepoint. PHOTO/FILE

A Pahiatua man, who doctors say will never run again, still has no recollection of the accident that left him with shattered bones from the knees down.

Nicholas Watson, 23, was sentenced in the Palmerston North District Court on Tuesday after being convicted of driving without a license while prohibited and careless use of a motor vehicle.

At about 5.55pm on December 12, 2013 Watson, accompanied by two passengers, was driving on Castlepoint Beach in his brother's Honda Integra. He had no license but had finished work for the day on a nearby shearing station and decided to go for a swim.

After entering the busy lagoon, Watson accelerated to speeds of between 60km/h and 80km/h and began doing "snakeys".

The car hit soft sand causing it to roll three or four times. Watson was not wearing his seatbelt and was thrown from the vehicle, while his two passengers who were wearing seatbelts, were unhurt.

The beach had an advisory speed limit of 25km/h. Watson was ordered to pay $130 court costs in respect of each charge and disqualified from driving for nine months.

Outside court the once avid rugby and basketball player said he could not remember the "life changing" incident.

"I don't actually remember anything but as I look back now I think what a dick ... if I had of just gone home instead of going for a swim ... "

Watson was placed in a coma for eight days after the accident and spent five months in hospital. Now reliant on crutches, he is determined to walk on his own.

"I was told I'd never run again but I'll prove them wrong. I'll live with this forever; my hip is pretty stuffed, my bones from the knee down were shattered, I broke my femur, my ribs and they've put fake veins in - my legs are pretty stuffed but I did this to myself."

Watson says he misses being able to work as a shearer.

"I was supposed to be at the Golden Shears this year ... I'll go back eventually but it will never be the same."

- APN News & Media