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March 30th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Boat crash victim, Kate Campbell.
The son of a state MP has been ordered to pay almost $230,000 to a woman who suffered life threatening injuries during a boat crash on the Canning River more than four years ago.
Kate Campbell sued Luke Woollard, the son of Alfred Cove Independent MP Janet Woollard, for more than $200,000 in medical bills, lost earnings and ongoing dental treatment.
Ms Campbell, 24, was placed into a coma and suffered a broken ankle, pelvis, vertebrae and jaw, a shattered larynx, torn oesophagus and eight missing teeth after slamming into the boat’s dashboard and windscreen when it crashed near the South of Perth Yacht Club in the early hours of November 7, 2007.
Dr Janet Woollard, MLA member for Alfred Cove.
Mr Woollard last year pleaded guilty to causing Ms Campbell grievous bodily harm after crashing his father’s boat and was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
The pair and several others had attended a party at the University of WA tavern until about 11pm.
They had travelled to the party onboard the boat, driven by Mr Woollard.
During the civil case before Judge Philip McCann, the Perth District Court heard one of the passengers on the boat, Murray Patterson, had intended to drive the group home but Mr Woollard “shoved” him out of the way to take control of the wheel.
Mr Woollard admitted he was “10 out of 10 drunk” but argued Ms Campbell knew he was intoxicated and accepted the risks when she boarded the boat.
Defence lawyer Raoul Cywicki said Ms Campbell had turned down three offers of lifts or taxi rides home so she could travel with her partner to his home in Salter Point, in Perth’s south.
Ms Campbell testified she was concerned about Mr Woollard driving the boat but did not ask him to return to shore or let her off.
“I had the choice of either jumping out or staying in the boat,” she said.
She claims she shouted at him to slow down near the Canning Bridge but was not sure if wind prevented him from hearing her.
Ms Campbell denied knowing Mr Woollard was too drunk to safely operate the boat.
“That was a 19-year-old girl, I was very naive to drinking and I assumed anyone that took the wheel of a vehicle, whether a boat or a car, was sober,” she said.
During the civil case, Ms Campbell’s unofficial boyfriend at the time of the crash, Michael Roberts, described graphic details of her injuries immediately after the boat collided with an unlit navigational light near Canning Bridge.
Slumped between two chairs on the boat, she was choking on her tongue and struggling to breathe, and her face was covered in blood, he said.
Several of her teeth had been knocked out.
“The only [remaining] tooth I remember was through her lip,” Mr Roberts said.
“I hoped she wasn’t conscious.”
Mr Patterson, Mr Roberts’ friend, has been praised for possibly saving Ms Campbell’s life by clearing her throat.
Her close friend Louise Cook said Ms Campbell was unrecognisable days after the crash and was so embarrassed by her appearance, including no teeth and a tracking hole in her neck to help her breathe, that she often refused to see visitors.
“I think that was really hard for her,” Ms Cook said.
She described emotional and embarrassing situations her friend had endured for the past four years due to her injuries, including her temporary dentures falling out at a bar and boys teasing her about the “hickey” on her neck – a scar from the tracking hole.
She regularly left social events upset.
“She’s much more aware of people watching her,” Ms Cook said.
“Little things that wouldn’t normally get to her now do.”
– with AAP
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