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Thursday, 3 April, 2014
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Teddies take the plunge
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Police prang court was a daily reminder of the crash. “I was grateful that I was the one who got all the major injuries,” he told the court. His passenger, a female friend of Ringwood East, was placed in an induced coma with a closed head injury. Her fractured and torn ankles have been causing ongoing impairment; she suffers depression and shortterm memory loss. Nicolopoulos had a recorded blood-alcohol reading of at least 0.128, the sample was taken about 90 minutes after the crash. He was a twice-convicted drink-driver, a P-plater who was required to have no alcohol in his blood when driving. He had also been ordered to only drive a vehicle fitted with an alcohol interlock device. Nicolopoulos, who has no memory of the crash or its lead-up events, was driving his mother’s car without an interlock device. The court was told he later bought her a $15,000 replacement vehicle. According to a police summary, Nicolopoulos had been out with friends the night before at two inner-city night clubs. CCTV footage had allegedly shown him drinking liquor from “various receptacles” on several occasions at one of the night clubs. While on the freeway, Nicolopoulos’s sedan was allegedly seen by a witness swerving in and out of the far left lane and the emergency lane. At court, the accused was flanked by about a dozen supporters. His character referees described him as “caring and compassionate”, “hard-working” and “takes responsibility”. His mother told the court Nicolopoulos “wouldn’t harm anyone”, and has supported her financially since his teens. Continued on page 4
By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS A SERIAL drink-driver who crashed into the back of a police officer’s station wagon parked in a Monash Freeway emergency lane has been jailed for 90 days. Stephen Todd Nicolopoulos, 26, formerly of Hampton Park, pleaded guilty to a string of charges including reckless conduct endangering life and negligently causing serious injury as a result of the crash in Mulgrave at 5.36am on 6 July. The impact allegedly caused the unmarked Highway Patrol car to spin 180 degrees into the freeway’s left lane and face oncoming traffic, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court was told on Monday. Leading Senior Constable Aaron Gribble had been sitting in the car making notes after a traffic intercept; his car had had its driving and emergency lights on at the time. In his statement, Leading Sen Const Gribble stated the car was struck “without warning”. “It appeared to me, I was ‘spinning’ down the freeway ... I felt slightly dazed, but managed to work out that I was facing city-bound on the out-bound lanes and could see headlights coming towards me.” Leading Sen Const Gribble, who is married with three children, escaped with minor injuries. He assisted Nicolopoulos and an unconscious passenger in the other car, both of whom weren’t wearing seatbelts. “I asked the male driver if he had been drinking in which he mumbled, ‘I’m f ... ed’,” Leading Sen Const Gribble stated. Nicolopoulos’s bloodied head had cracked the windscreen in the estimated 94 km/h crash. He was hospitalised with a right knee laceration, knee tendon tear and has a scar over his right eye-lid - which he told the
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