A 25-year-old man who fell asleep driving and crashed into a tree while under the influence of alcohol has been convicted for mid-range drink driving.
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Patrick William Fisher, from Greenethorpe, was disqualified from driving for three months and placed on a 12 months community corrections order when he was sentenced at Young Local Court on Wednesday, March 10.
Due to the serious nature of his injuries a sample of his blood for mandatory testing couldn't be taken within four hours of the crash.
Police applied for an expert analysis certificate based on the amount of food and alcohol he had consumed as well as a range of other factors.
Fisher, who pleaded guilty, said he consumed four mid-strength beers at a barbecue on the Henry Lawson Way before falling asleep and crashing on Tyagong Creek Road about 11.30pm.
A forensic pharmacologist/toxicologist returned a mid-range reading of 0.141.
"Whether four mids would give a reading of .141 I accept it," Magistrate Jillian Kiely said at court.
Court facts reveal he was trapped for three hours before he was freed by SES.
Fisher had a shattered tibia, broken heel and femur, lacerated kidney, two broken ribs and three fractured vertebrae.
"He learnt a lesson first hand in the most extreme way of the consequences of drink driving," his representative said.
Fisher will need an interlock device installed for 12 months.