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A man admitted he is a “fool” after pleading guilty to running over a park ranger who tried to give him a parking ticket.
Matthew Valerio, then 21, and his friend abandoned a white Mazda BT-50 ute for 40 minutes in a no-go zone on Marion Street in Enmore, in Sydney’s inner west, in November 2022.
The couple had returned to the car at around 8.50pm and found two car park guards issuing a fine.
Valerio had yelled ‘hey, hey, that’s my car, oh man’ while his friend called the rangers ‘fucking bastards’ and yelled ‘fuck you’.
Valerio then got behind the wheel of the ute and completed a three-point turn before driving towards the rangers, hitting one of them.
Matthew Valerio (pictured) admitted he was a “fool” for leaving a Sydney ranger “catastrophically injured” on the road.
Valerio appeared in the New South Wales District Court on Thursday after pleading guilty last November to recklessly causing serious bodily injury and failing to stop and help after an accident.
Witnesses heard the collision and called emergency services as the two terrified children headed to Valerio’s mother’s house.
Valerio surrendered to the Newtown police station two hours after the collision and was arrested shortly before 11 p.m.
His attorney, Evan James, said Valerio thought he had hit another car, not one of the rangers.
“He didn’t know…he didn’t see the victim before the collision,” James said. News.com.au reports.
James said his client has felt “infinitely guilty” for leaving the ranger “on the side of the road in a catastrophic state.”
The ranger was rushed from the scene to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a critical condition.
He spent two weeks in a coma and suffered “significant” injuries, including a liver laceration, traumatic brain damage, spinal injuries, and pelvic and rib fractures.
The ranger also had to undergo several surgeries, including having screws placed in his fractured right arm.
He did not remember the collision when he woke up from his coma.
The seriously injured ranger was one of two (pictured) who fined Valerio in November 2022.
James submitted to Judge Kara Shead that the incident was Valerio’s first offense and that he was a “very young person.”
He also stated that the time Valerio has already spent behind bars should be taken into account during sentencing.
“He has acknowledged full responsibility for what he has done,” Mr James said.
Valerio greeted friends and family at the end of Thursday’s hearing as he was taken back into custody.
His sentence must be handed down on May 29.