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Dec 07, 2023The contractor who used a 16-tonne roller to ram the vehicles of “car enthusiasts” in the Hutt Valley has crashed a work truck after apparently falling asleep.
Patrick John Roil’s lawyer told a judge in the Wellington District Court his client had taken methamphetamine to stay awake to continue working after a deluge caused many slips in the Upper Hutt council area.
“It was a terrible idea,” Judge Tania Warburton said to Roil on Wednesday.
Defence lawyer Phil Mitchell said Roil had worked for three days, took the methamphetamine, but still fell asleep.
The judge said that on April 19, Roil, 51, had not slowed when he approached the intersection of Western Hutt Rd and Major Dr, hitting one vehicle stopped at the traffic lights, pushing into the back of another vehicle.
His truck clipped the back of another vehicle, went on to the wrong side of the road, moved back to the correct side of the road before hitting a traffic light pole.
Roil was thrown from his truck and seriously injured. He tested positive for methamphetamine when he was taken to hospital for treatment.
He pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving and driving with methamphetamine in his blood at a concentration above the high risk level.
The judge noted Roil had previously been ordered to pay $45,000 reparation, and Mitchell explained it was the result of a bit of vigilante justice to “boy racers” causing damage around Roil’s work yard.
Roil said insurance had paid for the reparation.
He was spared having more reparation ordered for the latest offences because the police prosecutor did not have a schedule of the damage to give the judge.
The judge fined him $1500 and disqualified him from driving for one year and a day.
Roil had asked for name suppression, which police opposed.
He had feared Upper Hutt City Council would cancel the contract it had with his company, risking the jobs of himself and 10 staff members.
But the judge said that hadn’t happened when Roil was convicted the last time while working under the same contract.
The Post