Man who smoked joint after car crash to face court for "drug driving"

[Slocombe]

Canberran drivers who smoke marijuana or drink alcohol in the hours after getting out of a crashed car can still be charged, a court says.

Nigel Stuart Hill, 37, lost control of his car and crashed into a tree early one July morning in 2012.

He went home but had no painkillers, so he smoked marijuana instead.

The pain persisted and he went to Calvary Hospital three hours after the crash.

He was blood tested an hour later, and THC was detected.

Hill was charged with a drug driving offence and called before the ACT Magistrates Court, despite there being no evidence that he consumed the drugs before getting behind the wheel.

Drivers can be charged with the offence even if they innocently consume drugs post-driving, but test positive within a relevant period.

That is thought to be an inevitable side-effect of the blood testing regime, which makes it near impossible to distinguish whether someone has consumed the drugs before or after driving.

Typically, prosecutorial discretion is used in such cases, or the courts simply give the offender a lighter sentence.

But Hills lawyer, Paul Edmonds, argued that in this case the blood sample was taken outside the two hour time limit he said was permitted by law.

He also argued his client was not defined as a driver involved in an accident because he broke the continuity between the crash and the hospital by going home.

The magistrate accepted that argument and threw out the charge against Hill.

But the decision was appealed by the Crown to the Supreme Court, which handed down its decision on Friday morning.

It overturned the magistrates decision, and Hill will now be forced back to the Magistrates Court to deal with the drug driving charge.

They found there to be a much longer time limit than the two hours Hill claimed.

The Supreme Court found an offence had been committed when a person crashes their car, attends hospital within six hours, gives a blood sample within the next two hours, and drugs are detected.

Hill will now face the ACT Magistrates Court at a later date.

http://canberratimes.com.au/act-news/man-who-smoked-joint-after-car-crash-to-face-court-for-drugdriving-20140516-zrf1z.html