An English tourist who seriously injured two other English tourists in a drunken hit-and-run in Gorge Rd was warned by Judge Kevin Phillips in the Queenstown District Court yesterday it was "inevitable" he would face prison.
Rupert Adnan White (30), pruner, pleaded guilty to two counts of drink-driving causing injury and one of failing to stop at the scene of an accident.
Just after midnight on January 14, White - who was about to go back to the United Kingdom - had been drinking for nearly seven hours when he got into his car knowingly drunk, the court heard.
White's vehicle crossed the centre line, mounted the kerb and drove into a group of three young tourists walking home on the footpath after a night out in Queenstown.
Elizabeth Bassnet was knocked unconscious and thrown 10m on to a gravel verge by the impact.
Traces of her blood and hair were found in a large indent in the driver's side of the shattered windscreen of White's Toyota Estima.
She sustained a broken nose, deep facial cuts, swelling and fractures, significant bruising and torn knee ligaments to the right side of her body, and had to undergo extensive surgery at Southland Hospital, including the wiring of her right index finger in three places to stabilise the shattered joint.
"She is likely to have permanent disfigurement of this finger and limited use of it and suffer from arthritis," the police summary of facts said.
"She has also experienced numbness to her teeth and pain while eating, and may have further injury to her right knee."
Andrew Griffiths was thrown on to concrete outside Cory's Electrical and suffered a fractured skull, a broken right collarbone, forearm and foot, and scratches and bruising to his face and body.
He also required extensive surgery at Southland Hospital to fix the bones in his forearm with a metal plate.
Both victims were likely to require ongoing treatment for their injuries.
White narrowly missed the third victim, Jack Skinner, who was "left on his own in a very distraught state screaming for help for his friends ... who he believed had been killed".
After the smash, White continued on at speed and drove back on the wheel rim of a punctured tyre to a unit at Goldfield Heights, where he fell asleep.
Police found the damaged car outside the Goldridge Way units at 3.45am and breath-tested him.
He recorded a breath-alcohol level of 909mcg.
Judge Kevin Phillips later said he would be interested in seeking an expert opinion on what White's breath-alcohol reading would have been if he had been tested at the time of the crash nearly four hours earlier.
White had told police he could not remember "hitting anyone" but did recall a "bump" which he thought could have been caused by the blown-out tyre.
"You were driving a motor vehicle in a condition where you have no recollection of causing horrific injuries ... a full-time custodial sentence of imprisonment is inevitable," Judge Phillips said.
White was convicted and remanded in custody for sentence on March 21.
