Actor James Rolleston in court on dangerous driving charge

Actor James Rolleston appears in court on dangerous driving allegations.

Boy actor James Rolleston, who was seriously injured in a crash this year, has been charged with dangerous driving causing injury.

Rolleston appeared in Opotiki District Court this morning. No plea was entered.

He will appear again in February. The maximum penalties for a dangerous driving conviction are a $20,000 fine and five years in jail.

The 19-year-old was seriously injured in an Opotiki car crash on July 26.

Court records show Rolleston was driving at a speed considered "dangerous to the public" and caused injury to Kaleb Maxwell, who was in the vehicle with Rolleston at the time.

The car hit a bridge, and "half the bridge" ended up in the car according to a volunteer firefighter who attended.

Rolleston was taken to Waikato Hospital's Intensive Care Unit where he remained for nearly a month.

Maxwell was also seriously injured in the crash.

Rolleston told Fairfax on the eve of his court appearance he just wanted to be "honest".

"It's a daunting experience, I guess, standing up there and facing the consequences. But I just have to face the music ... I don't want it to seem to anyone that I am hiding."

He believed he was lucky to be alive.

"I was just a young teenage lad who thought he was invincible. And I learned I wasn't. It could happen to anybody," he told Fairfax.

Rolleston, who also starred alongside Cliff Curtis in the movie The Dark Horse, faces a long road to recovery.

He has started physiotherapy, swimming and speech therapy at Auckland's ABI Rehabilitation Centre.

"It's like the muscles in my mouth are lazy, so I can't pronounce the words properly," he told Fairfax.

"I know what I have to say...but it comes out mumbly. A lot of words I mumble. My speech gets worse, I struggle more with it, when I am tired."

But he was sure he would work again. "Acting is still my dream and it will never stop being my dream."

- NZ Herald/Whakatane Beacon