A Melbourne-based Uber driver was caught in a 178km/h dash along the Hume Freeway trying to get his sick friend to a hospital, a court has heard.
The Fawkner man appeared at the Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court on Monday to plead guilty for dangerously speeding nearly 70km/h over the speed limit.
The court heard police saw a black station wagon speeding along the Hume Freeway at Glenrowan around 10:30pm on 11 May.
Officers took around three minutes to catch up to the speeding vehicle under darkness and clocked it at 178km/h.
The man and his five passengers were intercepted at Winton, where he told police his friend was throwing up in the back seat and asked to be driven to the nearest hospital.
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He said the occupants were coming from Canberra.
The Fawkner man told the court he was in a stressful situation, and he wasn’t able to handle his emotions properly.
He has since begun counselling to be able to better handle high stress moments.
Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Stuart Pritchard said the man was ordinarily of good character, with no criminal history and he had been accepting of his dangerous offending.
Magistrate Megan Casey imposed a 12-month licence disqualification and a $500 fine without conviction, acknowledging the consequences of the Uber driver’s employment without his licence.
“When you are excessively speeding that much, when something goes wrong, it goes catastrophically wrong,” she said.
“There were better ways you could’ve handled your friend’s illness.”
