Magenta: Tamika Burrell sentence hearing over horror Wilfred Barrett Drive drug-driving crash

A young model, on her way home from a bikini shoot, has described her “broken” life after her friend crossed onto the wrong side of the road and slammed into another car.

Tamika Burrell, 24, of The Entrance, has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm. Picture: supplied

Two young women, whose lives have been irrevocably changed by a horror head-on smash, have faced court for two very different reasons.

The driver, Tamika Burrell, 24, of The Entrance, faced a sentencing hearing at Gosford District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, driving with an illicit drug present and overtaking when unsafe to do so.

Her passenger and former close friend, 29-year-old Gene-May Mallet, also faced court but to share her victim impact statement and describe how the fateful crash on May 2 last year had shattered not only her body but her dreams of the future.

The court heard emergency services were called to Wilfred Barrett Drive, at Magenta, at 6.10pm when a black Hyundai Coupe being driven by Burrell crossed onto the wrong side of the road and collided with a white Toyota Prado.

Burrell overtook cars on the wrong side of the road before the crash. Picture: Google

An agreed set of facts states Burrell had been travelling for about 600m on the wrong side of the road, overtaking other cars before the crash and had an illicit drug present in her system.

The Toyota driver, a 16-year-old female learner driver, and her passenger, a 53-year-old man, were not seriously injured

Burrell and Ms Mallet were treated at the scene for pelvic, leg, rib and internal injuries before being flown to John Hunter Hospital.

The court heard Burrell had visited her passenger in hospital and had flown to Queensland, where Ms Mallet now resides in the care of her mother, for a “surprise visit”.

Burrell’s barrister told the court his client had expressed remorse and even had a tattoo permanently inscribed on her wrist which read “I’m sorry”.

Burrell and Ms Mallet were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

However Ms Mallet told the court Burrell only ever apologised for “the accident” but never said sorry for causing her lifelong injuries.

“Last year I was a passenger in a high impact car accident that has changed my life in ways that I no longer recognise myself,” Ms Mallet wrote in her victim impact statement.

Ms Mallet described herself as a social, outgoing and happy person who was a hairdresser and model. She said she was on her way home from a bikini photo shoot when the accident happened.

“I had multiple life threatening injuries and a broken neck which is now titanium rods, plates and screws with no movement,” she said.

“I live on painkillers just to bear the pain. I have multiple scars on my head where hair no longer grows. The surgeons found the lower half of my left ear under a flap of skin in the back of my head and reattached it.”

Tamika Burrell, 24, of The Entrance, pleaded guilty. Picture: Facebook

Ms Mallet also outlined injuries including her broken lower spine still requiring surgery, left leg which was crushed leaving her with a limp, broken ribs, punctured lungs, grade three liver tear along with stomach muscles that had to be reattached after being ripped from the bone.

She said she had scars down the middle of her stomach, around her waist and on her legs.

“I’ve got no career, no modelling, no hairdressing,” she wrote.

“I feel worthless and a burden in my family who rally around me. No surfing, no motorbike riding, no skateboarding. I can’t even kick a ball or run in the park with my son. I can’t pick him up to hug him.”

She said she had PTSD and also suffered from depression and anxiety and was triggered by the sound of screeching brakes and helicopters.

“This body I have been left with is not mine … I am broken as a person and I am trying to live with the shell of me. My life will never be the same. It was removed from me through no fault of my own without so much as a sorry.”

Judge Tanya Bright will deliver her remarks on sentence on December 2.