Victim of serious crash in Amby responds to Maverick Robert Carl Fisher’s sentence

While Caitlin Williamson spent 13 days in a coma, the man whose drunk driving left her with lifelong brain injuries didn’t spend a single day behind bars. Following the shocking sentence, she says it doesn’t feel like justice.

Caitlin Williamson was 19 when she suffered critical injuries in a crash, caused by Maverick Robert Carl Fisher's careless drink driving.

 

While Caitlin Williamson spent 13 days in a coma, the man whose drunk driving left her with lifelong brain injuries - Maverick Robert Carl Fisher - will not serve a single day behind bars.

While it took Ms Williamson months to recognise her own family, Fisher will do 100 hours of community service for leaving the scene of the crash without rendering assistance.

While Ms Williamson had the gruelling journey of relearning how to walk, talk, read, and write, Fisher will pay a total fine of $1200 between drink driving on the day of the crash, and drug driving 18 months later.

While Ms Williamson couldn’t eat solid foods for months because both sides of her jaw were broken in the crash, Fisher’s licence was disqualified for just ten months.

Caitlin Williamson (left) was 19 when she suffered critical injuries in a crash, caused by Maverick Robert Carl Fisher's careless drink driving.

Feels like no justice

Earlier this month, Ms Williamson learnt that Fisher, 24, whose careless drunk and erratic driving on May 28, 2022 led to a rollover that left her fighting for her life on the side of a southwest Queensland road, would not spend a single day in custody.

She describes the punishment as “barely a smack on the bum”.

Ms Williamson and another passenger were ejected from the car - she was unconscious and not breathing on the side of the road, kilometres from any town, and the other passenger had a broken spine, but Fisher only stayed around long enough to dial triple-0.

He then disappeared into the scrub, where he stayed for an hour and 18 minutes, coinciding almost exactly with the departure of the final police vehicle from the crash scene.

After almost two and a half years of protractions, Fisher was finally sentenced in the Roma Magistrates Court on October 2, but it has left Ms Williamson furious.

“He definitely didn’t get the consequences he deserves,” Ms Williamson said.

“I admit I did stuff wrong ... I didn’t make a good judgment on who was taking me home ... but I’ve got to live with these things for the rest of my life.”

Caitlin Williamson (right) was 19 when she suffered critical injuries in a crash, caused by Maverick Robert Carl Fisher's careless drink driving.

She said when the police called her family to notify them of Fisher’s sentence, she said they were “outraged”.

“If I had to watch my kid go through that and know that my kid has to suffer and the person that did it hardly gets a smack on the bum .... it’s hardly a punishment,” she said.

She said she was also frustrated by how long it took for the matter to be finalised.

“He could have done the same thing multiple times in that time,” she said.

She said since the crash Fisher had messaged her a few times, asking her for a screenshot of a conversation between them in which he “said sorry”.

“It wasn’t even a good apology,” she said.

18 months after the horrific crash, Fisher was busted driving under the influence of cocaine in Roma.

Heroic recovery

Ms Williamson’s recovery throughout the past two years is nothing short of miraculous.

After the crash, the then 19-year-old was flown to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane where she spent 13 days in a coma.

“The doctors told my parents it was unlikely that I would wake up, and if I did, I would not be the same,” she said.

Through his senior years of high school, Ms Williamson’s younger brother Jett drove from Roma to Brisbane every Friday afternoon to spend the weekend visiting her in hospital, despite that she didn’t recognise him.

Her parents had no agency as they watched their daughter go from studying paramedicine to learning to walk and talk again.

“I was literally like a three year old in an adult’s body,” Ms Williamson said.

“Mum said I couldn’t have dessert and I’d get shitty.”

Caitlin Williamson was 19 when she suffered critical injuries in a crash, caused by Maverick Robert Carl Fisher's careless drink driving.

But, with the support of doctors and therapists dappled across the country, her recovery has been heroic.

“I work four days a week ... I go to the gym by myself,” she said.

“I do good workouts too, I’m working up quite good strength.

“I got my licence back ... I’ve even been on some long drives.

“I’m doing air force cadets again.”

She said in her recovery, it was like “all the memories were there, but the pathways to the memories weren’t there.”

Artifacts of her tenacity and resilience are abundant throughout her life.

They’re found in the gigabytes of storage used by her notes app, which she said is where she stores memos to herself, helping her wrangle with her impaired memory in her day to day life.

It’s found in a whiteboard out the back of her house, which is one of her systems for recreating memory paths.

“I’ve got a system .. Everyone knows how to support me,” she said.

Ms Williamson said she feels somewhat disillusioned by the sentencing decision made in the Roma Magistrates Court.

Despite this, she draws strength in the knowledge that her experience has the potential to affect real change.

“I know none of my friends and family will ever think about drink driving,” she said.

“I hope my story is heard and comes to mind next time you want to risk it.”

The content summaries were created with the assistance of AI technology, then edited and approved for publication by an editor.