Police find alleged reckless driver asleep in car after crash

Joshua Andrew Higgins, 35, was remanded in custody by the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday. Photo: Michelle Kroll.

It is alleged a drunk driver fled the scene of a crash he’d just caused before he was found asleep in his car shortly afterwards.

ACT Policing said at about 4:50 pm on Wednesday (18 September), officers heard a red Kia Stonic was allegedly being driven erratically on Hindmarsh Drive and Easty Street in Phillip.

Officers tried to stop the car, but its driver allegedly accelerated onto the wrong side of the road in the middle of an intersection, overtaking a vehicle before turning into a dead end on Neptune Street.

Police deployed a tyre deflation device, but the driver allegedly avoided that by driving the wrong way on a one-way road, causing other road users to mount the gutter to avoid a collision.

The driver allegedly crashed into another vehicle and continued driving in the wrong direction before police lost sight of his car.

But less than an hour later, officers were patrolling Launceston Street in Lyons when they saw the Kia Stonic stationary with the engine running.

“Police approached the driver’s side of the vehicle and found the man asleep in the driver’s seat,” a police spokesperson said.

“Officers woke the man and subjected him to a roadside alcohol screening test, which returned a positive result.”

The driver was arrested and allegedly returned a blood alcohol content of 0.150 grams of alcohol in 210 litres of breath.

The man, 35-year-old Joshua Andrew Higgins, faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday (19 September) where he was charged with reckless driving, not giving particulars to a driver in a crash, failing to stop for police, drink driving and overtaking a vehicle when it was unsafe.

He did not enter pleas, didn’t apply for bail and was remanded in custody.

Magistrate James Lawton adjourned the matter to 17 October.

Police suspended Higgins’ licence for 90 days.