Goolma Road, Wellington crash: Driver sentenced for death
The tragic circumstances around a woman who was pregnant when she drove dangerously and caused the death of her three-year-old daughter have been revealed in court.
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A woman from the Dubbo region who was speeding in response to news a family member had been taken to hospital and ended up causing a car crash which claimed the life of her three-year-old daughter has been spared jail.
The 24-year-old was handed a three-year community-based term of imprisonment, known as an intensive corrections order, when she was sentenced in the Dubbo District Court on Thursday.
As part of the order the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, must undertake 300 hours of community service work and abide by a curfew between 9pm and 7am.
She has also been forced to undergo grief counselling and disqualified from driving for 12 months, however the woman is now allowed back on the road after the driving ban was backdated when the crash happened.
On January 5 last year, the woman and child were travelling to Gulgong with another woman when her mother called to say her father had been involved in an accident and was being taken to Wellington Hospital.
On her way to Wellington, the woman overtook a truck on Goolma Road and continued to accelerate in a bid to get to the hospital quicker.
About 6km from the Goolma Road and Mitchell Highway intersection, the woman approached a bend in the road when she was driving her Suzuki Sports at a speed no less than 130km/h.
The woman lost control of the car before hitting a dirt embankment and rolling multiple times.
The car ended up on its roof and an off-duty nurse and correctional officers from the nearby Wellington jail rushed to save the child who was restrained in the back seat.
Despite the best efforts of the nurse and paramedics, the child died at the scene and the car became engulfed in flames.
The woman was airlifted to Liverpool Hospital with broken shoulders and the surviving passenger was flown to Westmead Hospital with a broken nose, head and facial injuries.
Police discovered the woman behind the wheel had very small amounts of cannabis in her body, however it was concluded the drug had not impacted her driving ability.
The woman pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving which caused death and grievous bodily harm.
Judge Nanette Williams said the woman drove dangerously when she panicked about her father’s accident.
“The offender has suffered the greatest possible loss,” Judge Williams said.
“There is no question that the offender is remorseful.”
Judge Williams said the woman would suffer with the consequences of her actions for the rest of her life.
“The offender told the court she no longer uses cannabis,” she said. “She’s suffered immensely by the consequences of her offending.”
The court heard the woman was pregnant when the crash happened.
Judge Williams said the father of the deceased child provided a victim impact statement which revealed the death had “ripped the heart from him”.
“He said ‘it was the best bond I have ever had with another person’.
“Viewing his daughter’s body at the funeral home was one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do.
“He said ‘this will never end for me as the pain is so raw and real, no parent should ever have to bury their child’.”
Judge Williams said the woman came before the court with prior good character and had pleaded guilty early.
“Community safety is not achieved by simply incarcerating someone,” Judge Williams told the court as she sentenced the woman.
Outside the court the child’s grandmother described the sentence as “totally disgusting”.
“This court case today will never put closure on it for me ever because there’s no justice at all,” the grandmother said.
“Somebody can kill a child and walk free, I can’t and I will never ever accept that.
“People do less serious things than that and they get jailed.”