A DRIVER with a shocking record who survived a horror high-speed crash in Warrnambool has reached the end of the road and will spend the next seven months in jail.
The law yesterday caught up with Daniel James Hall, 24, of Murdock Avenue, who pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court to a range of offences.
Including time in lieu of about $8000 in fines, Hall will have to spend just over seven months in jail, then serve 11 months on parole. His driver’s licence was cancelled for 12 months.
He faced charges of losing traction while driving, making a threat to kill, dangerous driving, having an unregistered vehicle, displaying false registration plates and three counts of driving while disqualified.
The court was told that in June last year an off-duty police officer noticed Hall, a disqualified driver, filling up a white Holden Commodore station wagon at a service station and driving off.
On July 16 Hall drove up and down Cramer Street in an erratic manner, screeching his tyres and fishtailing. He was disqualified at the time and the car was impounded for 30 days. On August 5 Hall was involved in an incident while returning his son to the child’s mother. He swore, abused and threatened his former partner.
In the early hours of September 13 last year Hall was travelling east at high speed along Raglan Parade on a red Yamaha motorcycle fitted with false number plates when the bike began to wobble uncontrollably.
Near the intersection with Morriss Road the motorcycle mounted the median strip and ripped out a small tree.
A sign was also knocked over and Hall was catapulted into a large thick bush, which cushioned his impact.
The front wheel of the motorcycle tangled with a pole which was also pulled out of the ground.
Parts of the motorcycle, including the exhaust, were found up to 30 metres from the crash site.
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Hall was airlifted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a serious but stable condition due to numerous compound fractures of his legs that required surgery and rods to be inserted.
Defence counsel Kathryn Moloney said Hall was likely to be jailed, but the accident almost cost her client his life and it had been a wake-up call.
“The accident was an act of self-destruction which almost achieved that aim,” she said.
Hall’s offending also breach a suspended four-month jail term and he also has to spend 63 days in custody cutting out fines of about $8000.
He has six prior convictions for dangerous or careless driving and had previously served a five-month prison term.
A police application for his former partner to lose her car, which Hall was driving when he committed his offences, was refused but the car will again be impounded for a month.
Magistrate Jonathan Klestadt said that while Hall’s luck was in on September 13 last year when he survived the accident, his luck was out yesterday.
Mr Klestadt said that Hall had an appalling history of breaking the law.