Police have charged an unaccompanied learner driver following a pursuit near Coffs Harbour last night.
Just after 11pm yesterday (Friday 30 October 2020), police conducting proactive patrols at Lyons Road, Sawtell, attempted to stop the driver of a white Holden commodore sedan for the purposes of a random breath test.
The driver allegedly accelerated from the scene, travelling at 130km/h in a signposted 50km zone, before mounting a nearby gutter and crashing into a telegraph pole.
All four occupants of the vehicle attempted to flee the scene on foot.
The passengers, two girls – aged 16 and 14 – and a 12-year-old boy, were detained by police at the scene.
The driver, a 17-year-old boy, was located hiding in nearby bushland and allegedly returned a positive result to a roadside breath test.
He was arrested and taken to Coffs Harbour Police Station, where he allegedly returned a breath analysis of 0.028.
The teenager’s licence was suspended, and he was charged with special category driver drive with special range PCA, learner not accompanied by driver/police officer/tester and police pursuit – not stop – drive dangerously.
He was granted strict conditional bail to appear at a children’s court on Monday 23 November 2020.
No injuries were reported during the incident and the three passengers were collected by family members.
Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. The public is reminded not to report information via NSW Police social media pages.
