Lachie Hunter charged with Drink Driving

[jeemak]

BT, I actually think this is the time more people are likely to sympathise with his stupidity. At the moment you're either in work and the dial his been turned up because people don't know if things are going to suddenly stop so they get you to go batshit crazy every day in terms of effort. Or, you're out of work and you are going batshit crazy and don't know what the future holds.

in this sort of climate people are really forgiving of others, those perceived as more privileged are also out of a job and not able to do what they love doing. It's a leveler.

It's literally perfect timing for this level of buffoonery.

[comrade]

It's literally perfect timing for this level of buffoonery.

Yeah, the only people that are really wringing their hands about this are Bulldogs people.

[comrade]

It's literally perfect timing for this level of buffoonery.

The average punter is likely thinking along the lines of 'bit of a dickhead, but isolife YOLO'.

[jeemak]

The average punter is likely thinking along the lines of 'bit of a dickhead, but isolife YOLO'.

Or not isolating and "I'm a dickhead, YODO"!

[GVGjr]

Words still fail me with how silly Hunter has been but I'd be confident the club will stand by him and he will cop his whack on the chin.
I suspect the sanctions will be firm but fair but he does need all of our support

Like all footballers he's probably already taken a fair pay cut
He will be up for 50K plus to get the cars repaired and he will cop the fines and lose his license for 12 months not to mention whatever the club imposes on him

It's a harsh reminder about drink driving and hopefully as comrade mentioned early in the day there is something for him and his team mates to learn from.

The upshot is that no one has been hurt.
I doubt anyone is cutting him too much slack but I do hope the club rallies around him and provides the support he probably needs.
He would be doing it as tough as anyone at the moment.

Not a great day for the club or player but we should stand by him

[Jeanette54]

Not a great day for the club or player but we should stand by him

I totally agree.

[soupman]

Pretty poor from Hunter.

Obviously all speculation due to lack of complete facts, but I assume the logical way to proceed is as follows.

Hunter gets a big fine, loses captaincy and maybe some community program. Can't sack him, we are a club that loves to make the players like a family and I can't think of any quicker way to piss off the playing group than over punishing a popular player who has handled a fight with his fiance badly. We have to be stern and send a message that regardless of the reasons it's not ok but at the same time the club needs to be sympathetic and make sure that he remains part of the family. I suspect he is a more respected and liked person in the playing group than us supporters think, and regardless making a bad decision that already has very expensive and humiliating outcomes is enough without the club making it worse by casting him out.

Bailey Smith on the face of it was probably just trying to help him out and from all reports is hardly someone who would deliberately hide Lachie from the law. Maybe a small fine but otherwise leave him be. Billy Gowers is probably the same. If it becomes clear either encouraged the circumstances to unfold as they did sure hit them harder but there is a good chance they were both trying to help an upset mate in an hour of need. Don't punish them to harshly for that.

Gather the facts, do the above (unless anything else comes to light obviously) then move on. It will be forgotten by nearly everybody in a week.

[Dry Rot]

Bit of perspective.

What happened to Hunter was not flash, but I would prefer that to this happening to the Bont or Naughton

Another knee setback makes Charlie Curnow an unlikely starter in 2020

Promising Carlton forward Charlie Curnow is unlikely to play in 2020 after suffering another setback in his recovery from a knee injury with scans revealing a hairline stress response in the bone.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/afl/ano...17-p54kys.html

[westdog54]

That's not how it works is it? You can only be judged at the time you have taken the test and people involved in accidents are tested
Had he waited then who knows

Based on the tests he will lose his license for 12 months

There might be a lot more to this but of what we know he is incredibly lucky no one was hurt

The 12 months will just be for the .05 offence. He'll likely be charged with careless driving as well.

If he's spoken to all of the owners of the vehicles and provided a name and address at the time, and no one is injured, he's complied with his obligations under the Road Safety Act.

Legally (and we can say what we want about if it's BS or not, the law doesn't care) if the test is three hours after driving my understanding is there's a possibility for a defence. I don't know much more than that, someone can do the research

You're right.

Police have the power to demand a Preliminary Breath Test from anyone they reasonably suspect was the driver of a motor vehicle involved in a Collison.

If that's positive, an evidentiary breath test must be performed within that same three hours at a police station/booze bus/testing vehicle.

Put simply, Police would not have performed the evidentiary test of they were outside 3 hours, because they have no legal power to do so.

Because he's blown over .1, his licence is immediately suspended for 12 months under the RSA, until he goes to court. From there there's a mandatory sliding scale the court needs to apply of he's found guilty. The magistrate has no discretion to go lower. He's getting a lift to training for at least a year.

I doubt he'll have to worry about leadership group meetings for a while.

[Bumper Bulldogs]

One of the guys at work said that Smith was innocent and just at the GF house. Apparently heard the crash came out, saw Hunter, he was the one that organised Hunters details to everyone and did get asked to take Hunter to Gowers. On the way he called our player welfare life line and the advise was turn the phone off, start drinking and we’ll get a Gordon to sort it out.

I really hope this is not true. Couldn’t imagine Peter being involved in a cover up.

[The Pie Man]

Then I hope he has changed his licence, car rego and electoral registration to the NSW location.

Or he is lucky avoiding the NSW cops. Legislation here - does not matter if you arrived in our rum colony beforehand.

https://gazette.legislation.nsw.gov....20_2020-65.pdf

BTW, just for the record, I don't give a stuff where Bruce is

Did he maybe need to self isolate for 2 weeks on arrival?

[comrade]

One of the guys at work said that Smith was innocent and just at the GF house. Apparently heard the crash came out, saw Hunter, he was the one that organised Hunters details to everyone and did get asked to take Hunter to Gowers. On the way he called our player welfare life line and the advise was turn the phone off, start drinking and we’ll get a Gordon to sort it out.

I really hope this is not true. Couldn’t imagine Peter being involved in a cover up.

That sounds ridiculous, too.

[Twodogs]

Words still fail me with how silly Hunter has been but I'd be confident the club will stand by him and he will cop his whack on the chin.
I suspect the sanctions will be firm but fair but he does need all of our support

Like all footballers he's probably already taken a fair pay cut
He will be up for 50K plus to get the cars repaired and he will cop the fines and lose his license for 12 months not to mention whatever the club imposes on him

It's a harsh reminder about drink driving and hopefully as comrade mentioned early in the day there is something for him and his team mates to learn from.

The upshot is that no one has been hurt.
I doubt anyone is cutting him too much slack but I do hope the club rallies around him and provides the support he probably needs.
He would be doing it as tough as anyone at the moment.

Not a great day for the club or player but we should stand by him

I've never been this angry with one of ours. You know me-I will always happily defend the indefensible but not this time.

The 12 months will just be for the .05 offence. He'll likely be charged with careless driving as well.

If he's spoken to all of the owners of the vehicles and provided a name and address at the time, and no one is injured, he's complied with his obligations under the Road Safety Act.



You're right.

Police have the power to demand a Preliminary Breath Test from anyone they reasonably suspect was the driver of a motor vehicle involved in a Collison.

If that's positive, an evidentiary breath test must be performed within that same three hours at a police station/booze bus/testing vehicle.

Put simply, Police would not have performed the evidentiary test of they were outside 3 hours, because they have no legal power to do so.

Because he's blown over .1, his licence is immediately suspended for 12 months under the RSA, until he goes to court. From there there's a mandatory sliding scale the court needs to apply of he's found guilty. The magistrate has no discretion to go lower. He's getting a lift to training for at least a year.

I doubt he'll have to worry about leadership group meetings for a while.

Any chance Lachie will be locked up? (no pun intended)

Leaving the scene of an accident carries a (non mandatory) 14 day jail sentence. Would it come down to your conduct afterwards? If you make a *!*!*!*! of yourself at the scene then it's an extra the cops can charge you with?

Say I hit a car and you turn up and say "WTF have you done here?" and I reply with a barrage of abuse then do I go face down on the bonnet of the car with my hands cuffed behind my back? whereas if I had been reasonable in the first place...

[bornadog]

You're right.

Police have the power to demand a Preliminary Breath Test from anyone they reasonably suspect was the driver of a motor vehicle involved in a Collison.

If that's positive, an evidentiary breath test must be performed within that same three hours at a police station/booze bus/testing vehicle.

Put simply, Police would not have performed the evidentiary test of they were outside 3 hours, because they have no legal power to do so.

Because he's blown over .1, his licence is immediately suspended for 12 months under the RSA, until he goes to court. From there there's a mandatory sliding scale the court needs to apply of he's found guilty. The magistrate has no discretion to go lower. He's getting a lift to training for at least a year.

I doubt he'll have to worry about leadership group meetings for a while.

I still don't get the breath test. How can it be proven he was driving under the influence, if he was tested probably an hour later and not behind the wheel. ( PS: not just talking just Hunter, but anyone)

[Grantysghost]

I still don't get the breath test. How can it be proven he was driving under the influence, if he was tested probably an hour later and not behind the wheel. ( PS: not just talking just Hunter, but anyone)

I tried to make sense of this last night. I think I have my head around it but more learned woofers may able to translate the legalese better than I.

https://www.trafficlawyermelbourne.c...l-breath-491f/ Road Safety Act 49(1)f which is here https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/i...y-act-1986/201