An Arrowtown company director who caused a head-on crash while driving drunk in Speargrass Flat was also distracted by his phone, his lawyer says. Andrew Carmody, 66, was driving on Hunter Rd about 6.30pm on March 13 when he veered across the road into the wrong lane. The victim, who was driving in the opposite direction with a colleague, rounded a bend and saw Carmody’s vehicle in his lane, prompting him to swerve to the right to avoid a collision. However, the defendant swerved back into his lane almost simultaneously, and the vehicles collided head-on. When a cop attending the scene noticed the defendant was showing signs of alcohol consumption, he got a positive breath-screening result. Carmody, who has two prior convictions for drink-driving, elected to give a blood specimen, which came back with a reading of 84mg. At his sentencing on a charge of drink-driving causing injury this week, Carmody’s lawyer, Kieran Tohill, said the defendant had been looking at his phone while driving. Judge Catriona Doyle said the victim suffered a concussion in the crash, and was unable to work for two weeks. She told Carmody he was “just so lucky this didn’t go worse than it did”. Noting he had already paid the victim $26,000 in reparation for his written-off vehicle, she convicted him, imposed a $600 fine, ordered that he pay the victim another $1000 in reparation for emotional harm, and disqualified him from driving for six months. She warned Carmody he would be facing a harsher sentence if he appeared again. ‘‘If we see you back here again, fines and disqualification won’t cut it.’’
