P-plater rolls car 'trying to flee RBT'

A P-plate driver is in hospital with minor injuries after allegedly trying to flee a random breath test – only to crash and roll his car.

Police allege the 19-year-old driver tried to evade police after he was stopped by highway patrol officers on Parramatta Road, Homebush, at 1.40am today.

Officers attempted to follow the car but soon decided to break off the pursuit. The driver allegedly then lost control at an intersection in Lidcombe.

Police said the car then mounted the footpath at Bombay Street, crashed into a brick fence and then a light pole, and struck three vehicles parked in a car sales yard.

It then rolled on its side.

The driver then allegedly fled the scene, and was arrested a short distance away. 

He remains in hospital where he will undergo mandatory drug and alcohol testing.

The crash comes two days after a police officer lost part of his leg when a car ploughed into an RBT site at Leaumeah in western Sydney.

Jakob Thornton, aged 22, allegedly spent 10 to 20 seconds looking down at his phone when he failed to see the police patrol cars, crashing into one of them.

Officers Jonathon Wright and Matthew Foley were crushed between the car and a police van, and Mr Wright had a 15cm amputation of his right foot .

Mr Foley suffered a fractured leg.

Mr Thornton has been charged with using a mobile phone and dangerous driving offences.

"We talk ad nauseum about traffic safety, some days you have to wonder what we have to do to get some of the public to understand the dangers of texting," New South Wales Police Force Commissioner Nick Fuller said.

Last night, a fundraising page raised more than $18,000 in two hours for Mr Wright’s family, quickly surpassing its $10,000 goal.