By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
AN 18-YEAR-OLD L-plate driver has crashed after being told by passengers to “floor it” during a police pursuit in Hallam.
The woman had been pulled over by police on Kays Avenue on 5 May due to a rear passenger not wearing a seatbelt, a court heard on Monday 28 September.
As a police officer got out of their car, the driver accelerated away in a Mitsubishi – later saying it was because “my friends told me to floor it”.
It later emerged at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court that a rear passenger – a “friend’s friend” – had outstanding arrest warrants.
“I shouldn’t have listened,” the accused later told police.
During the ensuing pursuit, she reached estimated speeds of up to 85 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.
As she turned into Alexander Street, her car struck a parked Ford ute and caused “major damage” to both vehicles, police prosecutor Senior Constable Glenn Horman told the court.
Two cars parked in front of the ute were also damaged.
At the time, the accused failed to display L-plates and didn’t have an experienced driver in the car.
The driver told police her friends told her to turn right but “it was too late … I was going too fast.”
At her parents’ home on 18 June, the accused – in what magistrate Jack Vandersteen described as a “meltdown of sorts” – threw a glass of Coke and a large bowl into the home’s interior walls.
Defence lawyer Adrian Dessi said the woman’s offending was “out of character”, blaming a difficult home environment and the accused’s deteriorating mental health.
“Six months earlier, she wouldn’t have engaged in this.
“She had aspirations to join the police force. Now she realises that’s not possible.”
After four years of marijuana use, the accused now felt sick at the thought of smoking, Mr Dessi said.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said the woman had been making the “right decisions” until recently associating with “the wrong people”.
“That person who told you to accelerate hasn’t turned up to support you in court today.”
He took into account the accused’s youth and absence of prior convictions.
The accused was disqualified from driving for the mandatory minimum six months and ordered onto a positive lifestyle program and a road trauma awareness course.
She was also put on a 12-month good behaviour bond.
