Crash survivor slams driver's sentence
CAITLIN Wilmot has experienced the dangers of speeding firsthand. She is still suffering from injuries nearly two years after a high speed crash at Lowood.
Ipswich
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CAITLIN Wilmot has experienced the dangers of speeding firsthand.
She is still suffering from injuries nearly two years after she was a passenger in a car that crashed at high speed in Lowood.
The driver, 26-year-old Dylan John Hempelman, will serve six months of a two-and-a-half-year prison term imposed in Ipswich District Court for dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm.
It's a term Caitlin doesn't think will stop him from speeding again.
The court was told Hempelman had driven at more than 100kmh - more than twice the speed limit - in the middle of Lowood when he lost control of the car on a corner and hit a wooden power pole, splitting it in two.
Caitlin broke her left arm in the crash, and her forearm was degloved. The male passenger, who was asleep in the back, suffered a broken arm and spinal injuries.
Caitlin said she begged Hempelman to slow down as they drove into town on the night of November 12, 2012.
"He was going really, really fast. I asked him to slow down; I thought he would when he got to the bottom pub in town. But he didn't," she said.
While the court was told she continued to support Hempelman, Caitlin denied it.
She said she didn't get to finish a victim impact statement to the court to tell the impact the crash had on her life.
Caitlin's mother, Vikki-Lee Wilmot, said she thought they were all dead when she arrived at the scene on the night of the crash.
"When I arrived and I saw that car, I thought there was no way anyone survived that crash. He snapped that power pole like a twig," she said.
Caitlin said she had lost friends to speeding and was terrified to think she could easily have been another statistic.
Her mother said, when she heard Hempelman would serve only six months behind bars, she "hit the roof".
"She's still recovering from the injuries. She'll probably never fully recover," she said.
"She'll suffer from them for the rest of her life. That's a pretty high price to pay for someone else's stupidity."
Caitlin said she didn't think six months behind bars was enough to teach Hempelman to slow down.
"I know Dylan and I think he'll be at it all over again when he's out," she said.
"He nearly killed two of his best friends and that didn't teach him a lesson. I don't think six months will do it either."
Originally published as Crash survivor slams driver's sentence
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