Warrnambool drink driver blows more than five times the limit after three-car crash

The 34-year-old man blew .291 following the collision on Raglan Parade in November last year.

He pleaded guilty in Warrnambool Magistrates Court on Monday to driving offences.

The court heard the motorist was travelling east on Raglan Parade on November 20 last year when he collided with a stationary vehicle at the intersection of Mahoneys Road about 5pm.

The victim's vehicle, which was waiting to turn right, was forced into another stationary vehicle. The three vehicles suffered damage and two female drivers were transported by ambulance to hospital for observation.

Police attended and the man subsequently recorded the high blood alcohol reading at the Warrnambool station.

Nunzio La Rosa, a magistrate for 20 years following two decades as a defence lawyer, said he noticed blood alcohol readings were much higher than 10 years ago.

"We often speak about the ravages of methamphetamine these days, and when I first started practise it was heroin that was ravishing our community, but no one seems to pay much heed to alcohol," he said.

"It's been there and will continue to be there."

Magistrate La Rosa said .291 was an accident waiting to happen.

"Thank God it didn't involve the death of somebody," he said.

"This is a classic example of a person who, at almost .3, thinks he can drive. You'd be pleading to a culpable drive (charge if somebody died)."

The magistrate deferred sentencing while the man undergoes treatment at the Western Region Drug and Alcohol Centre.

His comments came after a series of high blood alcohol readings across the region in the last eight months.

Just days before the 34-year-old caused last year's three-car pile up, a 32-year-old Laang man intercepted in Yambuk blew .319 - more than six times the legal limit.

At the time of the offending, Port Fairy police Sergeant Dave Walkley told The Standard it was the highest he'd ever seen.

Then in March, a 51-year-old Cobden man blew .192. It was his third extreme reading in 12 months after blowing .283 in June last year and .237 in December.

Last month a 57-year-old woman blew more than three times the limit in the Hamilton central business district while a 25-year-old disqualified driver was jailed for one month after he was found drunk and asleep behind the wheel after blowing a tyre doing multiple burnouts in Heywood.

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