Jamie Stuart Kelly showed a "callous disregard" for the mother and 10-year-old girl he injured in the collision on August 21 last year, Judge David Robinson said.
The 45-year-old appeared before the Dunedin District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to a slew of driving matters and two assaults against his ex-partner a month later.
He was jailed for 19 months and banned from driving for two and a-half years.
Just days into the country’s second Level-4 lockdown Kelly was driving a ute with three friends inside, when he came across a family of four on a bike ride in Dukes Rd.
The defendant drove up behind them "aggressively" before screeching to a stop, prompting the startled family to dismount.
While the father of the group ushered the others to the far left, Kelly drove over the wheel of one of the bikes and "brushed past" a young boy.
As he drove past the family someone in the car yelled: "f... Covid".
Kelly continued to a Corstorphine address, where he consumed alcohol with friends before hitting the road again.
This time he was speeding with three male passengers and a 5-year-old boy in tow, when he approached a right-hand bend in Eglinton Rd.
The court heard how Kelly cut the corner and slammed into a Toyota heading in the other way.
The female driver and her 10-year-old daughter remained in the car and called out to the defendant.
"I can’t help you," Kelly said, as he walked away.
The woman was admitted to hospital with severe bruising, an injured foot and back pain, and was discharged after 12 hours.
Her daughter was allowed to go home the same evening after a period of observation.
Judge Robinson said the pair had struggled with the physical and psychological effects of the incident.
When police found Kelly at his home an hour later he gave a breath-alcohol reading of 472mcg — almost twice the legal limit.
He explained his nephew — who sustained fractured ribs in the crash — had been depressed and they had been on "a joyride to cheer him up".
Counsel Alan de Jager said the major factor had been that his client was not wearing his glasses at the time.
A report detailed the man’s traumatic childhood but the judge said that did not explain the errant driving.
Judge Robinson allowed the defendant the chance to convert the sentence to home detention should an address become available.
He ordered reparation of $2000 and made a protection order in favour of Kelly’s former partner.
