{"id":950797,"date":"2026-11-03T07:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T07:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950797\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T07:20:20","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T07:20:20","slug":"josh-worrell-afl-star-who-injured-pedestrian-fends-off-driving-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/950797\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Worrell: AFL star who injured pedestrian fends off driving ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

However, the AFL<\/a> player\u2019s response after striking and injuring a pedestrian with his car has been praised.<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

Adelaide Crows defender Josh Worrell was convicted and fined $2400.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

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

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

CCTV of the incident, played to Adelaide Magistrates Court<\/a>, was confronting to watch, 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 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 two-centimetre cut to his head that required four staples, a scraped right knee and general soreness.<\/p>\n

The magistrate<\/a> 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 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

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\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<\/a> in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u2013 AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide Crows defender Josh Worrell has been convicted and fined $2400 after pleading guilty to an aggravated charge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-950797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950797","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=950797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}