A hallucinating Oamaru man who caused a car crash left his victim in an induced coma.
And while awaiting sentence he was involved in an "alarmingly similar" incident.
Jeffrey Mark Dick, 64, appeared in the Oamaru District Court yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to two charges of careless driving causing injury while under the influence of drugs, another charge of careless driving and one of suspended driving.
Without braking or swerving, he collided with another vehicle.
The driver had injuries to his back and neck and was put in an induced coma while the passenger had a sprained calf muscle.
At the scene of the crash, Dick was seen hallucinating and stumbling.
Yesterday, counsel Ngaire Alexander explained that was due to a change in her client’s prescribed medication two days earlier.
"He didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t real. He didn’t comprehend how unwell he really was and that he had no business being behind the wheel," she said.
Between 0 and 20 nanograms of methamphetamine was detected in Dick’s blood.
He vehemently denied ever using the drug, but thought the trace was because he had been around people who did.
In August, while awaiting sentence, Dick drove while his licence was suspended and in October he was involved in another crash and charged with careless driving.
Judge Dominic Dravitzki accepted Dick’s medication had affected his mental state, but was sceptical about Dick’s explanation for the presence of methamphetamine.
"That doesn’t excuse it, but it does put it in a different category to someone who had deliberately taken drugs," he said.
The second careless driving incident was "really concerning" to the judge, as police described it as "alarmingly similar" to the first crash.
Judge Dravitzki sentenced Dick to four months’ community detention, 18 months’ intensive supervision and disqualified him from driving for two years.
Dick was also ordered to pay the victim’s $500 insurance excess and $1787 for the blood-analysis costs.
