Ute pinball in Gilmore

A 19-year-old man will be charged with high-range drink-driving and negligent driving after his vehicle left the road on a bend, struck a parked car and careered into a house in Gilmore early this morning.

ACT Policing patrols attended the location in Louisa Lawson Crescent, Gilmore around 3.40am today (Sunday, March 4).

When the offender lost control of his Ford Falcon utility, it crossed the nature strip, hit a vehicle parked in a driveway, then continued on and crashed into the brick bedroom wall of a house.

The sole occupant of the house at the time of the incident, a 29-year-old woman, was unharmed even though the car came to rest centimetres from where she had been sleeping. There was structural damage to the brickwork of the house, and broken windows. The house damage was estimated around $100,000.

The driver, who is a provisional licence-holder and therefore required to have a zero limit of alcohol, was found to have a Blood Alcohol reading of 0.171.

Sergeant Krissy Barrett, in charge of the Tuggeranong Patrol team which attended the incident, said this was a reminder to all drivers of the extreme danger when speed, alcohol and wet roads are combined.

“This incident could very easily have had a tragic outcome,” Sergeant Barrett said. “The effects of alcohol on the driver combined with the hazardous road conditions we saw while on patrol throughout the night were a recipe for an awful outcome. In this case, both people involved were fortunate to escape without injury.”

[Courtesy ACT Policing]