Major Aaron Couchman: killer driver Darren Sansom faces court over crash that killed New Zealand Army officer near Canberra
The daughter and wife of New Zealand Army officer Major Aaron Couchman, who was run down while cycling a country NSW road, has brought the killer driver to tears in court.
Canberra Star
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A tired, inattentive truck driver who ran down a much-loved New Zealand Army officer on the Federal Hwy in February last year wept in court as his victim’s grieving family spoke of the suffering he caused.
Darren Sansom, 48, cut a lonely figure in the dock at Queanbeyan District Court on Friday as Judge Laura Wells mulled whether to send the father-of-four to jail.
Sansom, the court heard, had fallen asleep twice in his truck getting back behind the wheel, zoning out, and running down Major Aaron Couchman, 49, near Sutton.
Major Couchman was cycling at the time.
Sansom has previously pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death.
Major Couchman’s daughter, Kaitlyn Couchman, told the court her father was “a family man and extremely selfless”.
“To me, my dad was my superhero,” she said.
“I think the hardest pill to swallow out of everything that’s happened is I will never get to see my father again.
“This is my new normal, without my dad.”
Major Couchman, a keen cyclist, was living in Canberra on a posting to the secretive HQ Joint Operations Command.
Major Couchman’s wife of 25 years, Rachel, said Kaitlyn and the couple’s son, Brennan, had lost their father too young because of Sansom’s dangerous driving.
Mrs Couchman said she still feels shattered that the love of her life, who has served in danger zones overseas, died in the way he did.
She said she was haunted by the memory of passing police cars and ambulances, sirens wailing, the day her husband died.
“I remember thinking it didn’t sound good … never in a million years did I think it was my Aaron,” she said.
She said Sansom’s “carelessness and casual attitude towards his duties as a truck driver” was the main reason her husband was dead.
Sansom’s barrister, Michael Coroneous, said his client was the sole breadwinner for his family, which included two children with serious disabilities.
Sansom was tired on the day of the crash, having barely slept after being told of bad news about one of his disabled sons.
Mr Coroneous argued Sansom, who has no criminal record, should not be locked up and should be sentenced to a “prison sentence in the community” and handed an intensive corrections order.
Judge Wells will sentence Sansom on Monday.