A hospitality mogul who drove his sportscar into a 12-year-old boy on an electric bike, knocking him to the ground, has been handed a $645 fine and three demerit points.
Gold Coast bar owner Howard Wright, 58, was given the punishment for driving his Audi A5 without due care after the collision at Paradise Point on January 6, which was captured on the child’s GoPro camera.
Queensland Police defended the decision not to charge him with a more serious offence because they had reviewed the footage in full and claimed the child had racially abused Mr Wright by calling him a n***** shortly before the collision.
Police also added Mr Wright’s address had been uploaded to the internet, and he had received a number of threats, which have since prompted a separate investigation.
Aussies took to social media in response to the decision only to fine Mr Wright, arguing that the incident was more serious than a traffic infringement.
‘God help that man if he hits my kid like that.’ one commenter said.
‘That’s bulls***,’ another viewer wrote, under the news with a clip of the incident on one Instagram account.
‘People saying he had right of way shouldn’t have a license,’ a third agreed.
Bar owner Howard Wright was issued a traffic fine after colliding with a 12-year-old boy riding an electric bike
Aussies were outraged by the punishment arguing the Gold Coast man should have received a harsher punishment
On another platform, viewers said they couldn’t wrap their head around the measly $645 fine.
‘Don’t understand why he’s not been charged with a serious offence,’ one said.
‘This man has somehow turned knock and run into gang activity in his head and used it for justification for his actions,’ another said.
‘Alright, so any time someone verbally insults me, I can run them down in my car and only get a fine. What a f*****g joke,’ a third added.
In footage of the incident, the 58-year-old’s Audi A5 can be seen approaching the boy, before it collided with his electric bike and send him flying to the pavement.
‘What the f**k, I didn’t do nothing, I didn’t do nothing, I wasn’t even there,’ the boy can be heard screaming.
Wright exits the Audi and approaches the boy, replying: ‘I know you didn’t do anything. This bike’s illegal.’
‘I know but why did you hit me?’ the boy asks.
‘You ran in front of my car, I’m sorry,’ says Wright.
A woman nearby is heard defending the boy, telling Mr Wright he’s ‘just a kid.’
‘They are ringing my doorbell every day,’ says Mr Wright, prompting the boy to insist, ‘I didn’t do it’.
Mr Wright claimed the boy and other youth had been ‘knock-and-running’ at his Paradise Point property
Mr Wright attended Runaway Bay Police Station shortly after the incident and was handed an infringement notice for driving without care and attention.
Police at the time said Mr Wright’s Audi was ‘alleged to have been driven in a dangerous manner towards a 12-year-old boy from Paradise Point’.
‘It is alleged the vehicle struck the boy, knocking him from his bike,’ a spokesman said.
Talking to the media on Monday, Acting Superintendent Jason Tuffley said there was more to the incident that the footage showed.
‘Police have reviewed the footage from the child, or the boy, in its entirety, and this has corroborated with the adult driver’s version of events that he was racially abused and harassed prior to the collision by the boy and his associates,’ Act Supt Tuffley said, according to news.com.au.
‘As a result of this information, and the demeanour of the driver afterwards, the fact that he reported it took place, and police reviewing the matter in its entirety, it was decided that a traffic infringement only will be issued to the driver, which carries a fine of $640 and three demerit points.’
‘I can’t answer that question of every single circumstance in relation to a vehicle striking a child. Of course, that wouldn’t be an appropriate course of action.’
Mr Wright is a co-director of the company behind The Lounge and Bridges Tapas Bar.
Both are upmarket venues in Paradise Point on the Gold Coast.
