SA: Judge urged to acquit champion cyclist on driving charges

AAP General News (Australia)
08-19-2009
SA: Judge urged to acquit champion cyclist on driving charges

By Tim Dornin

ADELAIDE, Aug 19 AAP - A judge has been urged to acquit champion cyclist Chris Jongewaard
who has been charged with seriously injuring a fellow cyclist in a road crash.

South Australian District Court judge Wayne Chivell has reserved his verdict.

In final submissions on Wednesday, defence counsel Ian White asked the judge to find
that, under the circumstances, the collision was unavoidable.

Given the speed involved, the dark conditions and the distraction of an oncoming car,
there was very little the 30-year-old could do to avoid the accident, Mr White told the
court.

Jongewaard earlier in court admitted to initially downplaying to police how much alcohol
he had consumed before his car hit fellow professional cyclist Matthew Rex as he cycled
down a country road.

He said he now believed he may have miscounted or lost track of his drinks, after recording
a blood alcohol level of 0.094.

A four-time national cross country mountain bike champion, Jongewaard pleaded not guilty
to aggravated causing serious harm by dangerous driving and leaving the scene of an accident
after causing harm.

He lost his place on Australia's team for last year's Beijing Olympics after being
charged over the February 2007 accident.

Jongewaard's car struck Mr Rex on the night the pair and eight others were celebrating
22-year-old Mr Rex's birthday at a resort at Normanville, south of Adelaide.

He told the court that immediately after the crash, he made a decision to return to
the resort to seek help - not to try to hide his car or himself.

"I was really confused, didn't know what to do, it just happened so quickly," Jongewaard
said of the crash which left Mr Rex with injuries including a broken back, broken hip,
broken leg and internal bleeding.

"I just knew it was serious, the bang was enough to shake me up.

"I knew I had to get help."

Jongewaard said he tried to help police as much as possible and described the incident
as probably the most stressful thing that had ever happened to him.

In evidence earlier this week, the court heard that Mr Rex was intoxicated and had
hallucinated about seeing fairies before being struck by Jongewaard's car.

Witnesses said Mr Rex had been drinking heavily and was behaving bizarrely over dinner.

"Matt was struggling to coordinate himself, his eyes were rolling back in his head
... he was hallucinating and seeing fairies in the kitchen," witness Jacqui Ewens, who
was Jongewaard's girlfriend at the time, told the court.

Caitlin Wells, another at the gathering, said Mr Rex was "quite intoxicated and he
was making remarks that he may have been hallucinating".

"He pointed to the kitchen and commented about fairies in the kitchen," Ms Wells told the court.

After dinner, and unbeknown to others, Mr Rex took Jongewaard's mountain bike for a ride.

Mr Rex told the court he had taken ecstasy on a previous occasion but denied using
the drug on the day of his accident.

The former professional cyclist said he had no memory of the time between when he was
sitting on a balcony at the resort on the afternoon before the accident and about a month
later, when he awoke in hospital.

Judge Chivell will deliver his verdict next week.

AAP tjd/jl/cdh

KEYWORD: JONGEWAARD WRAP

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