P-plater tried to flee horror crash on skateboard
A MAN sent “psychotic” from smoking too many cannabis “cones” tried to flee the scene of a crash that left a woman permanently brain damaged, by sticking his thumb out and hitchhiking, a court has heard.
Central Coast
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A MAN sent “psychotic” from smoking too many cannabis “cones” tried to flee the scene of a crash that left a woman permanently brain damaged, by sticking out his thumb and hitchhiking, a court has heard.
The court was told, Kayden James Lawson, of Killarney Vale, took off on his skateboard and was picked up with his thumb out trying to hitchhike on the M1 motorway, about 1km away from where he ploughed into another motorist after travelling an estimated 200km/h in the breakdown lane while high on pot.
At his sentencing hearing this morning at Gosford District Court his solicitor Brad Kernick appealed for the “moral culpability” to be considered lower than the guideline judgment — a series of High Court precedents that instructs judges when sentencing — because he suffered from schizophrenia which was not diagnosed until after the crash.
He told the court Lawson was admitted to Wyong Emergency as a non-voluntary patient after the crash suffering a “psychosis” and had since spent seven months in a mental health facility.
“In my respectful submission Mr Lawson deserves to have the moral culpability reduced,” Mr Kernick told the court.
Mr Kernick said Lawson’s erratic driving and his attempt to flee the scene on his skateboard, and was picked up after he was hitchhiking about a kilometre down the road, “suggests a person not acting rationally”.
However Crown prosecutor Charisse Hodgeman said there were medical reports tendered as part of the brief of evidence which revealed he was smoking four to five cones a day and at least three cones a day in the 12 months leading up to the crash.
Ms Hodgeman said the medical evidence indicated he ended up in hospital from a “drug-induced psychosis” and that it was the cannabis that was a contributing factor to his mental state, more so than an underlying existing condition.
“In relation to the object seriousness [there is the] gross abandonment of responsibility as a road user and the catastrophic injuries [to the victim],” she said.
Lawson, a P-plater, was estimated to be travelling more than 200km/h swerving in and out of traffic and along the breakdown lane on November 10, 2014 when he slammed into the back of Kristyn Rourke’s Toyota Hilux at 6.48am.
The then 38-year-old senior property manager was on her way to an appointment when the impact sent her ute hurtling through a guardrail and plummeting 10m off a bridge to an embankment below.
Tests revealed he had cannabis in his system at the time.
Lawson was charged with five serious driving offences but a last-minute plea deal saw him plead guilty to aggravated dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, driving while illicit drugs were present in his system and failing to stop and render assistance following an impact causing grievous bodily harm.
Judge Mark Buscombe described the incident as “shocking, shocking”.
“It has to be above the mid-range — the driving, speeding, the appalling injuries — it has to be above the mid-range of objective seriousness,” he said.
Ms Rourke, who sat at the back of the court supported by her partner and friends, provided a victim impact statement which chronicled the devastating, lifelong implications she has suffered as a result of Lawson’s actions.
She said while she had no memory of the crash and post traumatic amnesia for 64 days after she woke from her coma, knowing he “basically left me for dead” trying to flee the scene “upsets me greatly”.
“I sustained an extremely severe traumatic brain injury, plus multiple other severe injuries including right ear amputation, right face/scalp de-gloving, C2 hangman (neck) fracture, left arm fracture and my left radial nerve was severed,” she said in her statement.
“Over the past two years I’ve endured multiple operations plus I have numerous ongoing rehabilitation and medical appointments, several per week.
“I needed to relearn the basics, such as walking, talking, writing, eating, brushing my teeth and decision making.”
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Ms Rourke described the heartbreaking weeks after waking from her coma and screaming out for the nurse when her partner would come and sit with her “as I had no memory of our relationship” or the fact they had become engaged a year prior to the crash.
Judge Buscombe adjourned the matter to Monday to deliver his sentence.
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