Disqualification and fine for drunk passenger who sent vehicle careening into takeaway shop in Whanganui

A breath test by police confirmed that Daniel Wilson was over the limit when he sent a car careening into a takeaway shop by pulling the handbrake. Photo / File

Customers inside a Whanganui takeaway shop got the shock of their lives when a vehicle came careening into the front of the building.

The vehicle lost control after the passenger, a drunk teenager, decided to pull the handbrake as it approached a roundabout from Alma Rd.

The vehicle's wheels locked up, forcing it to skid out of control before mounting the footpath and hitting a woman who was standing outside of the store.

She was knocked over but not injured.

The passenger, 18-year-old Daniel Wilson, pleaded guilty to having excess breath alcohol when he appeared in Whanganui District Court on Tuesday.

Judge Philip Crayton said Wilson's behaviour was foolish.

"Mr Wilson, you were trying to impress the driver in your clearly intoxicated state, but all you did was almost kill somebody," he said.

"The miracle here is that you're only facing a charge of driving, however briefly that you had control over that vehicle, with excess breath alcohol."

Judge Crayton convicted Wilson, disqualified him from driving for six months and fined him $600.

"I hope that at 18 you've learned a very sobering lesson," he said.

"If you haven't, I don't know what I can do to increase the lesson that that shock must have given you."

Police prosecutor Stephen Butler said the offending occurred at approximately 7.20pm on November 17.

"The defendant was the front seat passenger of a motor vehicle being driven West on Alma Rd," Butler said.

"As the vehicle proceeded around a roundabout, he has applied the handbrake, forcing the wheels to lock and the vehicle skidded out of control, mounted the footpath and crashed into the front wall of a Carlton Ave fish shop.

"At the time there were a number of customers in the store. One female standing outside the store was hit and knocked over, but was uninjured."