{"id":950707,"date":"2026-11-03T05:32:22","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950707\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T05:32:22","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:32:22","slug":"adelaide-crows-defender-josh-worrell-issues-statement-after-being-fined-and-convicted-for-hitting-pedestrian-with-his-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950707\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide Crows defender Josh Worrell issues statement after being fined and convicted for hitting pedestrian with his car"},"content":{"rendered":"

An AFL<\/a> footballer\u2019s response after striking and injuring a pedestrian with his car has been praised.<\/p>\n

Adelaide Crows<\/a> defender Josh Worrell was convicted and fined $2400 after pleading guilty to an aggravated charge of driving without due care in suburban Woodville on July 10.<\/p>\n

The victim had started walking across a pedestrian crossing on a green signal when he was struck, Adelaide magistrate Rodney Oates said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHis first recollection was picking himself up from the roadway and wondering what had happened,\u201d Mr Oates said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CCTV of the incident, played to Adelaide Magistrates Court, was confronting to watch, Mr Oates said.<\/p>\n

Worrell, who finished third in the Crows\u2019 best-and-fairest award in 2025 and seventh in 2026, had apologised to the man and driven him to Queen Elizabeth Hospital for treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (victim) observed (Worrell) to be nervous, scared, and extremely remorseful for what had occurred,\u201d Mr Oates said.<\/p>\n

The man told Worrell he could leave, but he insisted on staying until \u201cfurther support arrived\u201d.<\/p>\n

The pedestrian suffered a 2cm cut to his head that required four staples, a scraped right knee and general soreness.<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Worrell avoided a driving ban but was fined and convicted. Credit: AAPBe the first to know: Add 7NEWS as your preferred news source on Google\"Google<\/p>\n

The magistrate noted prosecution submissions that Worrell\u2019s driving fell short of appropriate standards, he seemed to be going too fast and should have seen the pedestrian.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was acknowledged, however, the defendant was very remorseful and effectively did everything right after the collision,\u201d Mr Oates said, describing Worrell\u2019s response as \u201cexemplary\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant did all he could to support the complainant during what must have been a highly stressful time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy observation is the defendant exhibited excellent, excellent character and qualities in the circumstances following the accident, which is to his credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The maximum penalty for the offence is 12 months\u2019 imprisonment and a fine of $10,000, and a minimum six-month licence disqualification.<\/p>\n

But the driving ban is not mandatory if the aggravating factor was causing harm to a person that falls short of serious harm.<\/p>\n

Mr Oates recorded a conviction but did not impose a licence suspension.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Worrell, 25, said he accepted full responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost importantly, I\u2019m extremely sorry for the impact this incident had on the person involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remain very grateful that the consequences weren\u2019t more serious. It\u2019s something I have reflected on a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a difficult and important lesson and with the court process now complete, I\u2019m looking forward to putting this matter behind me and making sure I learn from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His club was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Worrell has played 79 games for the Crows since debuting in 2021, playing four finals including their semi-final loss to eventual premiers Brisbane in 2026.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An AFL footballer\u2019s response after striking and injuring a pedestrian with his car has been praised. Adelaide Crows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[9126,638,64,63,55,639,1625,588,85,438546],"class_list":["post-950707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-adelaide-crows","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-lifestyle","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-your-feed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}