Disabled driver over the limit

by Abigail Caspari in Taupo
A tetraplegic woman caught drink driving has astonished a judge and been banned from driving indefinitely.

Judge Chris McGuire also told Taupo woman Karmen Donaldson she might have been jailed had she been able-bodied.

Following a three-hour defended hearing in the Taupo District Court yesterday Judge McGuire found Donaldson, 35, guilty of refusing to accompany a police officer, resisting police, assaulting police and refusing to give a blood specimen when requested by police.

She had pleaded guilty to charges of driving while forbidden and driving with an excess blood-alcohol reading of 115mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The legal adult limit is 80.

Judge McGuire banned Donaldson indefinitely from driving.

Donaldson was paralysed in a car accident in 1999. She has a modified car which she operates with her hands.

Taupo police officers Grant Russell and Ross Humphrey said they went to McDonald's restaurant in Taupo about 2am on November 28 after receiving a complaint of a suspected drink driver.

Mr Humphrey found it was Donaldson, the woman who had earlier that night been processed for drink driving.

After she failed a breath test, Mr Humphrey asked her to go back to the police station. "There was a volley of obscenities. She called us every name under the sun."

Donaldson was arrested.

As police removed her from the car she bit Mr Russell on the arm.

An ambulance was called to take Donaldson to the police station. Police tried to get her to undergo another breath test which she refused.

She also refused three times to give blood.

Donaldson said she told the police officers several times she couldn't walk before they "yanked me out [of the car]and let me go".

Judge McGuire said given Donaldson's disability which resulted from a car accident her attitude was astonishing.

"If you were an able-bodied person I would be considering jail right now.

"Disabled people are just as capable as killing someone on the roads as others."