A 19-year-old Rotorua man who lost control of his car and nosedived into the Puarenga Stream in the early hours of Sunday morning has been given a harsh telling off in the Rotorua District Court.
Matthew Junior Pairama appeared in court yesterday and was sentenced to 100 hours community work and disqualified from driving for 18 months, but not before he was scolded by Judge James Weir for a "shocking piece of driving" in which he and his five passengers could easily have been killed.
Pairama was driving down Sala St at 5.35am. The car, which police allege was travelling over 100km/h in a 50km/h zone in wet conditions, lost control near the entrance to Scion and narrowly missed a concrete power pole, plunged down a 10m bank and into the 3m deep stream. The car landed upside down and by the time emergency services arrived, only its wheels were above the water.
None of the occupants was seriously injured.
Judge Weir said Pairama was lucky to be alive and had nothing to be proud of.
"It's the exact sort of incident you read about in the paper all the time.
"It is only a matter of good luck that you and your friends are not six feet under right now."
'Shocking' driver given telling off
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