A man is due to front court in the Tweed today charged over an alleged drunken police chase in the NSW northern rivers region late last year.
It follows a lengthy police investigation into the December 2025 incident, which left the driver hospitalised for a month.
According to police, officers attempted to stop the SUV on the Pacifici Highway at Tanglewood around 6.40pm on December 18 due to the manner of driving when the man behind the wheel allegedly refused to pull over.
A pursuit was initiated and the chase continued onto Clothiers Creek Road, where officers briefly lost sight of the vehicle near Sliprails Road before discovering it moments later smashed into a tree.
Emergency crews worked to extricate the 23-year-old male driver from the wreckage before he was rushed to the Gold Coast University Hospital, where he wasn’t released until January.
Police will allege blood analysis from the night of the crash returned a positive reading of 0.054.
Late last month, police formally served the young man with a court attendance notice charging him with four offenses, including police pursuit (not stop, drive dangerously), driving with a low-range PCA, failing to stop at a stop line, and speeding.
He is due to appear at Tweed Heads Local Court later today.
Because the crash occurred during an active pursuit, a critical incident team from the Richmond Police District is investigating the police involvement, with the probe set to be reviewed by the Professional Standards Command and oversighted by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.
