A 19-year-old P-plater has run over a family of four who had been sleeping in a tent at a NSW south coast caravan park.
The family from the Snowy River town of Dalgety - a 45-year-old father, 43-year-old mother and their two children, a girl, 7, and boy, 4 - were seriously hurt in the accident, which took place at the caravan park on O'Keefe Place, Kiama, about 10.50pm on Saturday, police said.
The driver had left a party at the caravan park, taken his red Ford Falcon sedan from the car park at the northern end, and travelled 15 metres south before he allegedly drove straight into a metal fence, clipped the family's stationary blue Hyundai Santa Fe wagon and ran over their tent, Leading Senior Constable Jimmy Hayward said.
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The four family members were dragged several metres by the Falcon and remained trapped under the car and tangled up with the tent when it stopped, Leading Senior Constable Hayward said.
Other campers lifted the back of the car and freed the family, who were treated by paramedics and taken to various hospitals, police said.
Leading Senior Constable Hayward said the campers also restrained the driver until police arrived.
The father had a fractured pelvis and was taken to Wollongong Hospital. He was in a stable condition this afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The mother suffered a collapsed lung, spinal and rib injuries. She was taken to Wollongong Hospital and transferred to St George Hospital, where she remained in a serious but stable condition yesterday afternoon.
The girl had chest injuries and was taken to Wollongong Hospital before being transferred to the Sydney Children's Hospital in Randwick, where she was in a stable condition on Monday morning.
The boy had bruising and friction burns to his legs and was treated at Wollongong Hospital. He was in a stable condition on Monday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Police alleged the P1 licence holder from Balgownie returned a PCA (prescribed concentration of alcohol) of .174 after a breath test.
He was charged by police yesterday afternoon with two counts of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and two counts of cause bodily harm by misconduct whilst in charge of a motor vehicle.
He was granted conditional bail to appear in Wollongong Local Court on September 18.
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That's really sad news Tony, I know when I was tenting I was always apprehensive about somone running over me when sleeping at night, particularly when you had some hoons around. I always tried to put my tent between my vehicle and a tree or other fixed object that made it almost impossible for a vehicle to run over you, but this is not always possible with allocated tent sites.
There have also been a number of fatalities to tenters with falling tree branches etc.
They were inside a low metal fence in a caravan park, believing themselves to be in a safe area... the idiot was driving so fast he went through it. Its terrible, and now they all seem to have ended up in different hospitals away from each other and away from home. My heart goes out to them.
