Emily Sweeney sentenced for drug driving in Menai

A driver heavily affected by drugs swerved across lanes and was “having a fit” on a southern Sydney road before she crashed her car and needed to be put on life support, a court has heard.

Emily Kay Sweeney, 29, was sentenced in Sutherland Local Court on Tuesday for driving while under the influence of drugs in Menai. Picture: Ashleigh Tullis

A bookkeeper was so high on drugs that police found her unconscious behind the wheel after she crashed her car and was later placed on life support.

Emily Kay Sweeney, 29, was sentenced in Sutherland Local Court on Tuesday after she pleaded guilty to driving a vehicle under the influence of drugs; driving while disqualified and four counts of prohibited drug possession.

Agreed facts tendered to court said Sweeney’s licence was previously disqualified from November 2022 until October this year after she drove with an illicit drug in her oral fluid.

Witnesses saw Sweeney driving along New Illawarra Rd in Menai on December 14, 2021, where she was swerving in and out of lanes and appeared to be “having a fit” before she drove off the side of the road, scraped a concrete barricade and came to a stop.

Police arrived and found her drifting in and out of consciousness and non-responsive while in the driver’s seat.

Emily Sweeney was sentenced in Sutherland Local Court on Tuesday.

The engine was still on and the handbrake off before the car began rolling, prompting police to put the car in park.

Sweeney, who was living in Bankstown at the time, was removed from the car where an off-duty nurse commenced first aid until an ambulance arrived.

She was taken to Sutherland Hospital in a critical condition and placed on life support.

Police searched the woman’s car where they found 3.5g of Xanax tablets and more than 14g of meth.

The court heard Sweeney had previously been convicted for driving while disqualified in 2019 and was on two community correction orders at the time of the December 14 incident.

In court Sweeney’s lawyer Mark Rumore said his client had recently started work as a bookkeeper and was attending to a backlog of financial work at her new employment.

“She accepts she put the community in serious risk and nearly succeeded in ending her own life,” Mr Rumore said before noting she was in an induced coma and in hospital for weeks.

He said Sweeney had not committed any further offences since the incident and now lived with her parents in Narellan,

Mr Rumore said Sweeney was in an abusive relationship prior which had ended prior to the incident and she had taken drugs from him in “spite”.

Mr Rumore noted Sweeney had been clean from drugs since she attended rehabilitation and she was “on the road to recovery”.

Magistrate Brett Thomas said the offence was “particularly serious” but noted Sweeney had used the time since the incident to undertake rehabilitation.

Sweeney was placed on a community correction order for two years, disqualified from driving for a year, directed to complete 100 hours of community service work and fined $1300.