{"id":4407,"date":"2026-05-04T07:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T07:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4407\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T07:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T07:44:16","slug":"port-elliot-pub-crash-eric-cooper-jailed-for-reversing-into-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4407\/","title":{"rendered":"Port Elliot pub crash: Eric Cooper jailed for reversing into people"},"content":{"rendered":"

A drunk driver \u201cweaponised\u201d his vehicle when he reversed into a group of innocent people, pinning them against the wall of a popular coastal pub, a judge has ruled.<\/p>\n

Eric Danielle Tama Wharerua Cooper, 39, faced the District Court for sentencing on Monday after pleading guilty <\/a>to one count of aggravated cause serious harm by dangerous driving and eight counts of aggravated cause harm.<\/p>\n

Judge Heath Barklay said Cooper, a father of four, drove off after the crash outside the Royal Family Hotel in Port Elliot on October 5, 2024<\/a>, leaving behind \u201ccarnage\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put your car in reverse and, at speed, reversed into the group of people,\u201d Judge Barklay said. \u201cYou turned the wheel so it mounted the kerb.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople went flying. You pinned (one victim) to the wall, causing him terrible injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou made a conscious decision to drive dangerously. You deliberately reversed your car into a group of people in the hope you would collect one or more of them that you had been fighting with.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou say now that you are sorry you hit \u2018innocent\u2019 bystanders, but at the time you could not have cared less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week,\u00a0during sentencing submissions, prosecutor Lucy Hurley told the court Cooper was seen \u201claughing\u201d throughout his arrest.<\/p>\n

Cooper, who has previous NSW drunk driving convictions, had a blood concentration of 0.12 at the time of the crash.<\/p>\n

Minutes before his offending, witnesses at the Royal Family Hotel saw him doing \u201cburnouts\u201d and driving erratically nearby, Ms Hurley said.<\/p>\n

During sentencing, Judge Barklay said Cooper \u201ctook exception\u201d to being asked to slow down by people at the pub.<\/p>\n

The court heard he pulled over, took his shirt off and punched a male pubgoer in the face.<\/p>\n

Judge Barklay said Cooper was then set upon by the group and returned to his car \u201cintending to drive\u201d at the people he had been fighting with.<\/p>\n

\u201cYours was egregious driving,\u201d he said. \u201cThis case involves calculated, intentional dangerous driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, you decided to drive in a manner that was likely, if not inevitable, to cause an unacceptable risk to other people on the road. That was, of course, the whole idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his letter of apology, Cooper told the court he was \u201cdeeply ashamed\u201d for his actions and <\/p>\n

On Monday, Judge Barklay jailed Cooper \u2013 who he noted had problems with aggression and \u201cimpulse control\u201d \u2013 for six years with a non-parole period of three years and ten months.<\/p>\n

Cooper was also disqualified from driving for 12 year upon release from jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A drunk driver \u201cweaponised\u201d his vehicle when he reversed into a group of innocent people, pinning them against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5689,5695,22,23,133,21,5696,5681,5686,3536,1612,5691,5680,5704,5702,5688,4386,5687,5683,5693,5701,5690,5698,5684,5697,120,5700,5685,5705,5682,5694,5699,121,5703,5692],"class_list":{"0":"post-4407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-aggravated-cause","9":"tag-aggravated-cause-harm","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","13":"tag-austrlia","14":"tag-blood-concentration","15":"tag-charlie-dadds","16":"tag-conscious-decision","17":"tag-court-reporter","18":"tag-emergency-services","19":"tag-eric-cooper","20":"tag-eric-danielle-tama-wharerua-cooper","21":"tag-gary-juleff","22":"tag-hit-run-crashfive-people","23":"tag-hotel-hit-run-crashfive","24":"tag-impulse-control","25":"tag-innocent-bystanders","26":"tag-innocent-people","27":"tag-jonathan-hogg","28":"tag-judge-heath-barklay","29":"tag-lucy-hurley","30":"tag-massive-jail","31":"tag-messenger-subscription-box","32":"tag-non-parole-period","33":"tag-oceania","34":"tag-port-elliot","35":"tag-pub-crash","36":"tag-pub-wall","37":"tag-royal-family-hotel","38":"tag-sa-hotel","39":"tag-sent-people-flying","40":"tag-south-australia","41":"tag-subscription-box-version","42":"tag-victim-impact-statements"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}