Daniel Johannes van Sittert pleaded guilty to driving without due care in Alford fatal crash

A driver who failed to give way and caused a horror crash shattered a widow’s heart after she lost her husband of 53 years only months after losing one of her sons.

Scene of a fatal crash at Alford, north of Kadina at Yorke Peninsula. Picture: 7NEWS

A widow’s heart was shattered after her husband of 53 years was killed in a horror Yorke Peninsula car crash only months after losing one of her sons.

Daniel Johannes van Sittert, 31, failed to give way and 74-year-old Kadina man Graham Hewett was killed in the crash.

Police were called to Bews Rd at Alford, 20km of Kadina, about 8am on March 7 after reports of a multi-vehicle crash involving two Mitsubishi utes.

A victim impact statement was read to the Adelaide Magistrates Court this week by Graham’s son, Andrew Hewett.

Mr Hewett said he and his dad had farmed together for 34 years and Graham missed out this month on being a great grandfather.

Kadina man Graham Hewett died in the crash. Picture: 7NEWS

Scene of a fatal crash at Alford, north of Kadina, at Yorke Peninsula. Picture: 7NEWS

“I am missing him and his knowledge, his spare set of hands … but most of all I miss him as a dad,” he said.

Mr Hewett also read out to the court a victim impact statement from Graham’s wife, Robyn.

“What a senseless loss, a split second of your inattentiveness has impacted so many of our lives,” she wrote.

“You have taken from me a quiet, kind and hardworking husband, dad, pop and a great pop.

“He was my best friend of 55 years, having been married for 53 of them.”

Mrs Hewett said she missed her late husband everyday.

“He was always there for me, especially for support when a few months earlier we lost our second son,” she said.

“Both of our hearts were broken then and mine is now shattered.”

van Sittert, a father who lives at Willamulka on Yorke Peninsula, pleaded guilty to aggravated driving without due care, which was accepted in satisfaction of causing death by dangerous driving.

Daniel van Sittert pleaded guilty to driving without due care. Photo: Facebook

The plea was accepted in satisfaction to causing death by dangerous driving. Photo: Facebook

Casey Isaacs, for van Sittert, told the court he was travelling north along Bews Road when he approached the intersection.

“Quite simply … he didn’t see the deceased and thereafter the accident occurred,” he said.

The court heard van Sittert, who had written a letter of apology, knew the family as his boss was related to Mr Hewett.

Mr Isaacs said van Sittert, who moved to Australia from South Africa for a better life, worked as an assistant farm manager.

A prosecutor told the court they weren’t opposed to a suspended sentence for van Sittert but said he would have been familiar with the road as he travelled it regularly.

Magistrate Simon Smart will sentence van Sittert next week.