Crashed driver keeps on drinking

PAUL NIGEL SNEDDON: 'When you're lonely like I am, you cling to the things that bring you comfort.'

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A drunk driver, nearly three times the legal limit, drank beer in his overturned car because he had "nothing better to do" while waiting for police.

When asked by an officer how much alcohol he had consumed, Paul Nigel Sneddon, 47, of Palmerston North, replied: "Plenty. I've been drinking for four days straight."

He later told The Dominion Post that it was the lowest point in his life, but he did not think it would stop him drinking.

The former baker pleaded guilty in Palmerston North District Court yesterday to careless driving and having a breath-alcohol limit of 1191mcg. The legal limit is 400mcg.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Ollie Outtrim said Sneddon was travelling along Centennial Drive in Palmerston North late at night on June 1 when he failed to take a corner and crashed through a wooden barrier.

Police found him trapped in his overturned Ford Laser, drinking from a beer can.

Defence lawyer Peter Young said that, when Sneddon found he could not open the doors, "he had nothing else to do at that point, so he had another beer".

Judge Gregory Ross fined him $1100 and disqualified him from driving for 10 months. It was his first offence.

"As far as the post-accident drinking is concerned, that is something you cannot be given credit for," Judge Ross said. "Otherwise everyone would drink after an accident and use that as an excuse to get away with it."

Speaking afterwards, Sneddon said he was relieved no-one had been hurt.

He was in a "dark place" that night, having lost his job at the Winter Family Bakery four days earlier and heard about his father's prostate cancer on the same day.

"I'm separated from my wife, I've got no friends, no-one comes to visit me and that job was my whole life," he said. "So to remove that was to remove my purpose in life."

Sneddon said the news, coupled with the stress of not being able to afford rent on his one-bedroom flat, left him feeling "mentally unstable".

"I went for a drive to the supermarket and it was absolutely pouring down. It all happened so quick. Maybe I was speeding, maybe I blacked out for a second – I don't really know.

"I was lying there, trying to get the doors open but couldn't. I remember the inside light not working and thinking, `It's not like I'm going to read a book,' so I opened another can."

It was a stupid thing to do and he had only himself to blame, he said.

Losing his licence and car, which was written off, had hurt his chances of finding work and magnified his problems.

"It's amazing how quick and how far you can fall. I'm not a bad person, I've just made some bad choices along the way."

He had contacted Palmerston North Hospital in an attempt to sort out his mental health and alcoholism.

But he could not say the incident had put him off drinking. "I've honestly been trying to give up for quite some time.

"But it's an escape and it's the only out I have, which scares me. When you're lonely like I am, you cling to the things that bring you comfort."

But despite his problems, he would "hold on to hope" and spend each day looking for the job that could turn his fortunes around.

"I might be at my lowest point, but that means I can only go up from here. I just have to keep reminding myself that."

- © Fairfax NZ News