A man who drunkenly crashed a car has left one of his passengers with serious injuries, which include fractured vertebrae, legs and hands.
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The offender had spent more than eight hours at two pubs with colleagues before the single-vehicle crash on Canberra Avenue, near Nyrang Street, in Fyshwick.
Braydon Russell O'Leary, 32, did not attend the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday when defence lawyer Michael Kukulies-Smith indicated a guilty plea on his behalf.
O'Leary has admitted to the charge of culpable driving causing grievous bodily harm, in relation to a Canberra Avenue car crash that took place on the evening of November 11, 2022.
Agreed facts state the offender and two colleagues finished work at midday on the day in question and went to Casey Jones Pub in Casey, where they consumed an unknown number of alcoholic drinks.
They did the same sometime later at the Kingston Hotel in Kingston, before leaving about 8.30pm in a Mazda 3 sedan belonging to one of O'Leary's colleagues.
As captured on CCTV, the group stopped at a Fyshwick petrol station and the offender moved from the car's passenger seat to the driver's seat before driving off.
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Not long after this, O'Leary lost control of the car on Canberra Avenue and collided with a large tree in the thoroughfare's centre median strip.
The vehicle's front passenger had to be "extricated" by ACT Fire and Rescue and taken to Canberra Hospital in a serious unstable condition.
The passenger was diagnosed with fractures in four cervical vertebrae, two broken femurs and multiple breaks in both hands.
Crash investigators found tyre marks on the road which indicated the vehicle had spun clockwise, with its breaks not utilised until it collided, passenger side, with the large tree.
O'Leary recorded a blood alcohol concentration of 0.219, being more than four times the legal driving limit.
Court documents state the man was "culpable in his action by driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated to such an extend that he was unable to properly control a motor vehicle".
O'Leary is set to be sentenced in September.
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Tim Piccione
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
