Australian court rules against chainsaw drink-driver

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Australian court rules against chainsaw drink-driver

• 17 February 2015
• 

Withrow cut himself while using a chainsaw at his residence in February last year

An Australian learner driver who stitched his own chainsaw wound and drank gin for the pain before driving to hospital has lost a Supreme Court appeal against a drink-driving charge.

Timothy Withrow, from Port Willunga near Adelaide, had a blood alcohol reading three times the legal limit.

He was challenging an earlier ruling by a lower court that refused to consider the matter "trifling".

By law traffic offences deemed trifling can result in a lighter punishment.

Withrow sustained a gaping wound to his hand while using a chainsaw at his residence in February last year.

He phoned two emergency departments, but was told that they were very busy and would not be able to treat him for more than 10 hours.

Withrow then used a large sewing needle and some fishing line to sew up the wound and washed it with gin to prevent infection. He also drank gin to help with the pain.

He later decided to drive to the hospital for treatment after not being able to contact his wife. He said he could not afford an ambulance.

'Clear danger'
He was pulled over by police after failing to stop at a sign, and charged with several driving offences as well as being issued an immediate licence disqualification. Though he had previously held a driving licence in the US he did not have a full Australian licence.

In court he had pleaded guilty but before sentencing asked for the matter to be dealt with as trifling.

But Justice Kevin Nicholson agreed with the earlier ruling that Withrow had had options other than driving himself, including calling an ambulance or taxi, or approaching a neighbour for help.

"He posed a clear danger not only to himself but to other road users," Justice Nicholson said, according to local media.

"I admire [his] courage and his tolerance to pain but I do not admire his judgment."

Withrow will be sentenced by a magistrate at a later date.

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-australia-31501927

 

[Rockjock]

That's odd Like Canada and England Australia has public health care. So his cost would have been nil. Long wait? hardly you have a gaping wound you are put ahead of the lady with the boil on her buttocks

 

[weedkilla]

South Australia - free health care, but you need anbulance cover or face a hefty bill for a ride. I believe we are the only state where that is the case.
Plenty of stories of people with private health insurance, but no ambulance cover - private health cover gives free first ambulance trip, you pay the bill after that - typical story is a motorbike crash in the scrub, free ambulance ride to local hospital and massive bill for an air evac to city hospital.

 

[Rockjock]

South Australia - free health care, but you need anbulance cover or face a hefty bill for a ride. I believe we are the only state where that is the case.
Plenty of stories of people with private health insurance, but no ambulance cover - private health cover gives free first ambulance trip, you pay the bill after that - typical story is a motorbike crash in the scrub, free ambulance ride to local hospital and massive bill for an air evac to city hospital.

Terrible! Kinda the same thing here. But not huge bucks. Air evac is for only the critical care and that is gratis. I have taken guys to emerg with deep cuts and such , if you been then you are in need and in you go.

 

[Nitroman]

The point at the beginning of the story is: he telephoned. He should have just showed up in the emergency room they'd have taken care of him. I had a situation here where my wife cut herself, the dumbass nurse was rolling her eyes, and just about the time I was going to really yell for help, she saw the cut on my wife's knee and she began hollering for help.

Depending on the way he stated the problem, it was obviously perceived to be a small cut.

 

[Flattop Burns]

you have a gaping wound you are put ahead of the lady with the boil on her buttocks

better than behind.

 

[nyctreeman]

Well if he was a bit over the limit, I might sympathize with him, but he was 3 times over the limit
That means he was in the neighborhood of 0.30 ... which would render the average person unconscious and it would kill some people.

I have to assume his drinking was probably a function of his daily life, and perhaps the injury caused him to use a bit more than he normally drank, but I wager that injured or not, he was probably a regular driver at 0.20 ... Just a hunch

He should thank his lucky stars that he only has a DWI to deal with and not the death or crippling of innocent people that he'd not only serve prison time for, but have to live with the rest of his life.

 

[hamish]

That's odd Like Canada and England Australia has public health care. So his cost would have been nil. Long wait? hardly you have a gaping wound you are put ahead of the lady with the boil on her buttocks

Since being a civilian I have had to pay for every ambulance ride I have taken in Ontario.....................trip to CHEO with my son was $95.00, me headed to my local hospital was only $45.

An axe wound to my hand, wrapped in a bath towel that ended up being soaked through with blood , left me waiting for 7 hours to get my 31 stiches, much easier to complain of chest pains then go "well while I am here can you sew this up?".

 

[weedkilla]

Well if he was a bit over the limit, I might sympathize with him, but he was 3 times over the limit
That means he was in the neighborhood of 0.30 ... which would render the average person unconscious and it would kill some people.

I have to assume his drinking was probably a function of his daily life, and perhaps the injury caused him to use a bit more than he normally drank, but I wager that injured or not, he was probably a regular driver at 0.20 ... Just a hunch

He should thank his lucky stars that he only has a DWI to deal with and not the death or crippling of innocent people that he'd not only serve prison time for, but have to live with the rest of his life.

Legal limit here is 0.05, so he was in the 0.15 range. He was well lubricated, but not nearly dead.
He was also a learner driver, so he needed a licensed driver in the passenger seat, and he needed a blood alcohol level of zero.
Safe to say that he wasn't likely to win any prizes other than the Darwin Award.
If he had called an ambulance he would have been up for about $500.

 

[nyctreeman]

Legal limit here is 0.05, so he was in the 0.15 range. He was well lubricated, but not nearly dead.
He was also a learner driver, so he needed a licensed driver in the passenger seat, and he needed a blood alcohol level of zero.
Safe to say that he wasn't likely to win any prizes other than the Darwin Award.
If he had called an ambulance he would have been up for about $500.

0.05?!
That's ridiculous
0.15 is really nothing compared to the old days ... I'm pretty certain I drove home with 0.15 or thereabouts a few thousand times in my infamous clubbing days ... on the other hand, I was usually flying with some kind of stimulant as well

 

[Austin22]

It’s not about what you drink, the whole issue comes up how much reading you blew when you are caught and asked to do BAC test. When I was in States and working with a DUI attorney Los Angeles, I saw cases where sheriff charged DUI even when reading was .04.

 

[Matt81]

That's odd Like Canada and England Australia has public health care. So his cost would have been nil. Long wait? hardly you have a gaping wound you are put ahead of the lady with the boil on her buttocks

South Australia - free health care, but you need anbulance cover or face a hefty bill for a ride. I believe we are the only state where that is the case.
Plenty of stories of people with private health insurance, but no ambulance cover - private health cover gives free first ambulance trip, you pay the bill after that - typical story is a motorbike crash in the scrub, free ambulance ride to local hospital and massive bill for an air evac to city hospital.

Over here in the East you need ambulance cover as well, unless you feel like paying in full for the service. I have heard stories of people who forgot to renew their cover and where hit up for several thousand. Pretty crazy considering how cheap it is to have. For me it is only like $40 or something close to that for a full years cover. Not even worth considering not having it. A visit to an emergency department will cost you even through medicare. Last time i was in there for 12 stitches to my forearm was a charge of $90. Was the only person in there and still had to wait 2 hours even though the white towel i had covering the cut had soaked through and was completely red. Must have been a lunch break, cus they were ignoring me pretty good.