Dean Anthony Thompson faces Mackay court over crash into Shannon Pacher’s car
A father of two who drank about five beers while fishing could have jumped into the passenger’s seat of his wife’s car. Instead he got into his own, and kept drinking. Seven minutes later while changing the radio station he crashed head on into another vehicle.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A father of two drank four to five beers, one after another, while fishing.
He could have jumped in the passenger seat of his wife’s car to get home but instead the 47-year-old got behind the wheel of his Mitsubishi Triton and kept drinking.
Seven minutes into the drive home along Hay Point Rd shortly before 6pm, Dean Anthony Thompson looked down to change radio stations and his ute veered across double white lanes, crashing into a Holden Rodeo.
Mackay District Court heard Shannon Pacher was inside that Rodeo on June 5, 2022, his face thrust into the steering wheel as the airbags failed to deploy.
Crown prosecutor Shannon Sutherland said Mr Pacher, who had been driving to work at Hay Point Coal Terminal about 35 minutes from Mackay, suffered “catastrophic injuries”.
She said he was “essentially unconscious” and heavily bleeding while trapped in the driver’s seat as Thompson phoned tripled-0 and held his victim’s head up to help him breathe.
Thompson’s wife was one of the first on scene, as paramedics had to pierce Mr Pacher’s chest multiple times to open his airways. She is not accused of any wrongdoing.
“He went into cardio-respiratory arrest upon being extracted from the vehicle and was ventilated and intubated … if he did not receive this treatment, he would have died,” Ms Sutherland said.
The court heard Mr Pacher suffered injuries to his chest, lungs, neck, spine, liver, knee and brain, and underwent six “painful” surgeries while awake in the following months.
“The recovery was almost unbearable despite medical management,” Mr Pacher wrote in his emotional victim impact statement.
Mr Pacher also recalled waking up from his month-long coma in an ICU bed in Townsville unable to walk, talk, eat or fully open his eyes.
He said he was “heartbroken” to learn he had missed his seven-month-old daughter Ellie’s first crawl and words, and revealed she had screamed and clung to her mother, terrified of his disfigured face, a face he says belongs to a stranger.
“I’ve experienced multiple dental infections, even had a bone fall out of my nose in the shower at one point in time.”
Ms Sutherland, in pushing for a five year jail sentence, said Thompson had 17 prior entries for speeding, had drunk-drove in 2003 with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.15, and in late 2021, he had failed to leave his contact details after crashing into another car.
She said it was clear Thompson’s blood alcohol concentration of 0.109 had affected his driving as he had slurred speech when speaking to police officers at the scene.
Thompson pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death or grievous bodily harm while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance as well as possession of dangerous drugs.
Judge Gregory Lynham, in deliberating Thompson’s culpability, stated there was no indication he used his brakes or took evasive action to avoid Mr Parcher’s vehicle.
Judge Lynham added he must also consider Dr Duncan’s medical opinion that drivers with a BAC between 0.10 and 0.149 had 16 times higher odds of crashing and the level of marijuana Thompson had in his system was congruent with a “modest” increase in crash risk.
But he said he accepted the bulk of Thompson’s traffic history “occurred a long time ago” and character references showed the father of two was “highly regarded” and a “good family man”.
He said Thompson sought help from a psychologist and completed a Queensland Traffic Offenders, with “each of those matters support(ing) the conclusion … (he was) genuinely remorseful for (his) offending”.
He said he accepted distraction was the main cause of the crash but he could not disregard Thompson’s “grave error of judgement” to drive with alcohol and drugs in his system.
Judge Lynham sentenced him to three and a half years jail to be suspended after 12 months with a four year operational period.
He also disqualified Thompson’s licence for three years, and recorded convictions.
The court earlier heard Mr Parcher continues to suffer from anxiety, depression and PTSD, with emotional anguish continuing to plague his family.
His partner Stacey Bell told this publication after the sentencing that the jail term had delivered some relief but it was difficult to hear the court say Thompson was a good person, particularly given his driving history.
“I think that’s probably the hardest pill for us to swallow in the whole thing,” Ms Bell said, adding it had been hard to make sense of Thompson’s wife being among the first on scene.
Mr Pacher revealed he was given a four per cent likelihood of surviving the crash with his partner told to expect him to not make it through the night.
“Nothing prepares you for that,” Ms Bell said.
“What they told me was, if he does survive he would be brain dead.”
Ms Bell shared their daughter Ellie overcame her fear of her dad’s face after they used her love of bandages to explain his injuries, Ellie even taking up the responsibility of gently bathing her dad when he returned home from hospital.
And while Mr Pacher still has multiple surgeries to go and is restricted to eating pureed food, he and Ms Bell said they were looking forward to their wedding next year.
They said the nightmare had put things into perspective with a tomorrow never promised.
They hope anyone reading their story will think twice before drink-driving, wanting drivers to know that while they may think they are bulletproof, their victims were not.
Shannon Pacher’s Victim Impact Statement (in full)
“It’s hard to know where to start with trying to put into words how much my life has been changed, almost ripped apart since the 5th of June, 2022 accident.
“Not only my life, but the lives of my partner, children, mother, has become unrecognisable and as time goes on, I know that it’s never going to be the same again.
“Each month brings new challenges in every aspect of life but right now everything is still shattered by that day and the months that followed.
“Before the 5th of June, my life was seemingly as perfect as it could be.
“My partner Stacey and I welcomed our beautiful girl, Ellie, seven months old at the time of the accident.
“We had both secured redeployment to Hay Point Coal Terminal to work closer to home, we were in the middle of renovating our farmhouse ourselves so it was big enough for our family which includes my son Oliver who was six at the time of the accident, who resides with us part time.
“Everything was easy, we were excited to grow the farm and our family and this was our new beginning until that night.
“When I think back to waking up in an ICU bed in Townsville, my memory is incredibly murky and I relied a lot on Stacey’s recollection in the early days and months.
“I had no idea what happened when I woke, to where I was, and I’ve tried to piece together what had happened and how long I’d been in a coma for.
“I was heartbroken.
“I wasn’t able to walk, talk, eat, go to the toilet or fully open both eyes.
“I was breathing through a tube in my neck that had to be suctioned periodically by nurses and then eventually by myself, which I’ll never forget that feeling.
“I had wounds in several parts of my body and I was in a neck brace preventing me from moving my head, which ached from the back side.
“I was in shock and my only way of communicating was writing on a whiteboard with my eyes half closed.
“Stacey would tell me the things that I had missed while I was in a coma.
“I still feel so much anger about the pain that she and my immediate family suffered and the family milestones I had missed including my daughter finally crawling and saying her first words … I will never get those moments back.
“Stacey read about the accident on Facebook before the police arrived at the door.
“We can no longer have visitors at night because headlights through the front glass windows and the security lights being turned on trigger her emotion.
“I wish I could help her because sometimes it’s hard not to feel as though this is my fault as I watch her cry.
“I try not to think about it often but I remember some of the ups and downs of my time (in the wards).
“I had to transition from lying to sitting to standing and then walking to rebuild my energy.
“I remember not being able to walk further than one lap of my room at one point and then relapsing … I remember not having a shower for six weeks.
“I remember the shame of going to the toilet in a pan while being watched by nurses.
“I had a tube in my throat, breathing for me, which stopped me from speaking.
“I was being fed by a tube at one point, it fell out and could not be reinserted for days.
“I couldn’t stand the physical pain of them doing this while I was awake.
“I was literally starving and in 18 months, I am yet to regain the 14kg that I have lost.
“I do have recollections of asking to die.
“I asked Stacey and the nurses to please stop the machine that was breathing for me.
“The shame I felt at not being able to look after myself, not being able to understand because I couldn’t talk, and from looking at the mirror and seeing someone that was not me was too much.
“I was filled with shame, worthless and anger, so much that I didn’t want to continue being a burden anymore and I was scared it would never end and I would never be normal again.
“How do I explain to someone what it feels like to wake up one day and look like a different person?
“Sometimes I feel like I’m not allowed to care because it sounds shallow but it is surreal to know yourself for over 30 years and now look like a stranger.
“I remember the first time that I saw what I looked like, I was on my own and I used the camera on the iPad to look like myself.
“I couldn’t even cry properly because it didn’t feel real, it felt like something that I would wake up from.
“As time has gone on, that feeling may have eased after months of … crying daily when I caught my own reflection.
“But the reality is it has never truly gone away.
“I don’t feel like me. I look in the mirror, someone else’s face looks back at me and I avoid looking at old photos as I don’t want to deal with the emotions I feel when I see my old face.
“The defendant took away the face I had when the children were born and that’s not fair on them either.
“Imagine your seven-year-old son looking at your licence and (he) said, ‘I loved when you looked like that Daddy, you look different now’.
“I can’t even put into words the anguish in my gut hearing those words.
“When my daughter screamed and refused to look at me, cowering into her mum for more than an hour following my most recent surgery.
“When I tried to have a good night with friends and was rejected from licenced venues for an alleged fake ID because ‘it doesn’t look like you mate’, the shame never ends.
“As I write this today, more than 18 months down the track and countless surgeries, I am through the biggest surgery of them all that has set my face in its final position, and my heart is broken because it’s still not mine.
“The dream of looking in the mirror and seeing the old me is now gone, and I have to live with the fact that I’ll never be the person I was before.
“Stacey doesn’t talk about it much, she knows it hurts me, but I’ll never forget her words one day: ‘I’ll love you forever no matter what you look like but I just wish I knew that that day was the last time that I’d see your face, hear your voice the way that it was so that I could have cherished it even more.’
“I’ve been in physical pain every single day since I woke up.
“I’ve endured six surgeries to date, all of these between my trachea being removed and my jaw joints being replaced, have included being awake with a breathing tube inserted through my nose.
“It’s by far the most painful thing I can recall aside from the suctioning of my lungs in ICU.
“The most recent surgery in November was to finally rid me of daily … pain in the hopes I could stop taking daily pain medication and I could eat properly.
“The surgery was over 12 hours and it had to be repeated after six days due to the failure of the prosthetic plates causing my face to skew to one side.
“The recovery was almost unbearable despite medical management.
“I’ve experienced multiple dental infections, even had a bone fall out of my nose in the shower at one point in time.
“At this point in time, I’ve had 18 months to two years of full ongoing surgeries three months apart, not only bringing physical pain for myself but emotional pain to my families and disruptions in every aspects of our lives from home to career to schooling.
“I have trouble remembering new things due to the brain injury … it fills me with fear that one day I won’t be able to load a coal ship which puts dinner on our table … the (incidents) so far include flying to Townsville on the completely wrong day for a neuro appointment, constantly walking into rooms and not knowing why, forgetting my daughter in the shower, forgetting to pick my son up from school, leaving my dog in a hot car for two hours, asking what is for dinner when I just finished cooking it, and leaving the store with the completely wrong things countless times.
“It’s scary to think how some of those incidents could have turned out if I didn’t have the support around me.
“Prior to this accident, we lived in a very 50-50 household.
“Stacey worked in a leadership capacity at Moranbah and we did split rosters meaning I would care for our daughter on my own days, for days at a time, while she was away.
“Despite the fact she had secured a new role closer to home, this will not be an option for us anymore because of those incidents above would be much worse without her here.
“My relationship is burdened by many health complications outside of the obvious multiple surgeries and recoveries.
“I couldn’t imagine carrying the load that my partner Stacey has carried these past 18 months but it comes at a price on our relationship and at times her mental health also.
“She is essentially caring for me like an older person, cooking special meals, she’s reminding me of things I forget constantly, she is finding new ways to live with whiteboards, labels and alarms.
“We’re forced to sleep in separate bedrooms because of my airway defect which causes me to snore really loud and almost choke and now to be left with a twitch … that we’re trying to get help to control not to mention my recurring nightmare involving nurses from my time in hospital.
“Sleeping in separate rooms, the mental anguish leaves us with very little of the intimate relationship we had prior.
“If I listed all the people that were affected that night I’d run out of pages but my mum is the one that breaks my heart.
“Mum and I have always been extremely close.
“She lives in Texas, Queensland, with my stepfather and she often recounts the night she got the phone call.
“Stacey tells me the phone cut out and she had to call back, my mother had fallen to the floor in grief.
“Since then she’s been in Townsville with Stacey and our (legal support) before returning south to spend time in hospital due to the affects on her own mental health.
“It took me over a year to drive full time on my own after countless sessions in a vehicle with my psychologist.
“I can now drive without sweating and tremors and it makes me angry that the defendant was driving his new car before I’d even managed to get back behind a wheel.
“Every single time I drive to work, I pass the crash site and I think about the defendant living a normal life he gets to continue with his family while my family is trying so bad to break free from what feels like a life sentence.
“He took away our new beginning, he paused so many special things in our life and we’re still waiting for our normality but “Every day I drag myself out of bed and make an attempt at the life I had before whether I’m farming, at work on light duty, building things, being a family man, everything I do is marked with pain and … some sort of shame or loss.
“Whatever happens today may not change the course of my new life, but with future pain I will endure and the mental pain and anguish my family continue to suffer, but I want the outcome to show us that someone out there is standing behind us and making sure that people that get behind the wheel that completely blew apart the other peoples lives don't just get to carry on and potentially do it again.
“This was no accident, a decision was made that day and when the defendant didn't’ get into the passenger seat of his wife's car which was (in front) of him, my family have paid the price for too long already.”
Join the conversation
Latest hold up in ex-karate instructor’s alleged historical child sex offences
A fresh update in the case of alleged historical child sex offences against a former Queensland karate instructor has been provided in court. Read here what’s going on.
Read more
Petrol-soaked woman crawls, screams for help as man carries out evil plan
What started as a cruise romance ended in horror when a man plotted against his partner for months before dousing her and her bedroom in petrol, telling her he was ‘going to f**king kill’ her.
Read more