A THREE-TIME drink-driver who collided with a wallaby on his motorbike when more than four times the alcohol limit has been fined $2000.
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Brian Bell, 52, of Tarrant Street, Cobden, pleaded guilty in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court to drink driving, saying that on the day of his offending he found his father was suffering from bowel cancer.
He was convicted, fined and banned from driving for 20 months.
Magistrate Cynthia Toose said the accident nearly had catastrophic consequences.
She said she took into account that Bell had received distressing news, but he was drink-driving with an extremely high reading which put other road users in danger.
Police said that at 11.45pm on September 12 last year Bell was riding his green Kawasaki motorbike east on the Cobden-Warrnambool Road at Naringal when he struck a wallaby.
A blood sample taken at 1.30am recorded an alcohol reading of .204.
He told police: “I just found out Dad had cancer. I decided to go home. It was a bad decision.”
Bell said the damage to his motorbike would cost about $1000 to repair.
The magistrate said Bell had two prior convictions for drink driving, at .129 in 1991 and .158 in 1996.
