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$2000 fine for hit and run (Read 2548 times)
freediver
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$2000 fine for hit and run
Jul 24th, 2007 at 6:15pm
 
Is this too lenient? Is thinking you hit a politician a valid excuse?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Costello-staffer-hitrun-driver-fined/2007/07/24/1185043079042.html

A Canberra driver who hit the federal treasurer's chief of staff and left him critically injured on the side of a road has avoided a jail sentence.

Nealle Andrew Simpson, from the Canberra suburb of Monash, was fined $2,000 in the ACT Magistrates Court on Tuesday, three-and-a-half weeks after he hit Peter Costello's staffer Phil Gaetjens and drove off without stopping.

Mr Gaetjens, 52, suffered head injuries and fractured ribs and was in a coma for about a week at The Canberra Hospital.

Simpson did not see Mr Gaetjens crossing the road until he was thrown in the air and landed heavily, the court heard.

Simpson did not stop his four-wheel drive ute because he panicked and thought he had hit a politician and would go to jail for the offence.

He panicked again next day when he saw newspapers, with some featuring the accident on their front page, so he tried to hide the vehicle by driving it about 80km from Canberra and abandoning it in the Bredbo River.

However, he was turned in to police two days after the incident by his parents, who had pleaded with their son to admit what he had done.

In sentencing, Mr Dingwall took into account Simpson's early guilty plea, full-time employment as a joiner, his remorse and lack of offences in almost 10 years.
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Sprintcyclist
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Re: $2000 fine for hit and run
Reply #1 - Jul 24th, 2007 at 6:50pm
 
$2000 does seem overly light for "critically injuring" someone.  The guy was in a coma for a week.
Injuries like that will probably never heal fully.

Sure, his conscience made him confess and he was remorseful.
Possibly they guy may have died by being left with serious injuries.
Undoubtly his injuries were exassabated (?) by being left.

yes, I feel it is manifestly too light. For the lack of due human care and diligence he should have shown.
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Re: $2000 fine for hit and run
Reply #2 - Jul 24th, 2007 at 7:44pm
 
Perhaps because the ACT is a Labor territory - they didn't have the heart to give him a harsher penalty.  After all the boy was probably quite young & as his parents said - he panicked.  I think $2,000 is a reasonable fine.
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