A Barrack Heights disqualified driver has admitted being high on a cocktail of prescription anxiety drugs and alcohol when he crashed his car into a power pole at Bulli, leaving his male passenger with severe leg injuries.
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Alexander Thomas Santauro, 22, had taken 4mg of Xanax and 2mg of Clonazepam before downing six shots worth of Vodka and Ouzo on the morning of June 15 when he got behind the wheel of his white Holden Commodore and drove north on Franklin Avenue.
He was about 150m south of Park Road when the crash occurred. Both Santauro and the victim were able to get out of the wreckage, however the victim was taken to hospital with serious leg injuries.
Santauro was found with multiple tablets wrapped up and hidden inside a cigarette packet, at which time he confessed to having taken the drugs before driving.
"I must have blacked out as all I can remember was travelling south on Franklin Avenue, but I can't recall the impact," he told police of the crash.
Santauro was charged with multiple offences including dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, to which he pleaded guilty in Wollongong Local Court last week.
Defence lawyer Malea Mullard said Santauro had been accepted into a full-time live-in rehabilitation program to treat his drug and alcohol issues.
The case was adjourned for sentencing to November 26, however Santauro is excused from attending if he is in the rehab program at the time.