FORMER AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd was hospitalised after his 2009 Ferrari 599 became airbourne before colliding with a tree. He told police he had been knocked out earlier in the day.
The 72-year-old Rudd, real name Phillip Hugh Norman Witschke Rudzevecuis, was fined NZ$600 including court costs for careless driving after he was found to have driven straight through a roundabout at Tauranga, New Zealand, last month.
He did not show up at the hearing but was not punished for his absence as the offence was judged to be minor.
A summary submitted to the court read: “Skid marks and gouges out of the road were consistent with the vehicle becoming airborne over the planted roundabout, before leaving the road up a curb and colliding with a small tree.”
The court heard that Rudd was taken by ambulance to Tauranga hospital for observation. He told police he had been driving to visit his daughter earlier in the day and that he had been knocked out earlier in the day.
The New Zealand Herald report gave no indication of how he claimed to have been knocked out.
Community magistrate Shaun Cole said: “I’ve seen the formal statement from the police, there’s no evidence to the contraire, I find the matter proven.”
Rudd was previously charged and sentenced to home detention after pleading guilty to threatening to kill a former employee, as well as possession of cannabis and methamphetamine.
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