Mum’s Labour Day plea for tougher jail terms to mark daughter’s shocking death

After losing her daughter to a reckless driver 15 years ago, road safety advocate Judy Lindsay is continuing her fight this long weekend to push for stricter penalties on dangerous drivers.

Alexandra Hills mum Judy Lindsay says sentencing laws have not changed in the 15 years since her daughter was killed by a drink driver on this stretch of road. Picture: Courier-Mail

The bayside mother of a young woman who died in an horrific road crash 15 years ago is calling for harsher sentencing for reckless drivers on the anniversary of her daughter’s tragic death.

Alexandra Hills mother and road safety advocate Judy Lindsay called for longer jail terms for reoffenders and said bail and minimum sentencing laws needed to be tightened to stop similar tragedies.

But her main request to the government is to overhaul penalties associated with the charge of operation of a motor vehicle causing death while adversely affected, which she said should be treated as a murder or manslaughter charge.

Ms Lindsay was speaking out this week on the anniversary of her daughter Hayley Russell’s death as part of National Road Safety Awareness Week and after the state government this week updated its youth justice laws sanctioning child detention for dangerous youth.

But 15 years on from her daughter’s tragic death, Ms Lindsay said “nothing had really changed”.

She said learner driver Dylan John Campbell only spent 18 months behind bars for killing her daughter and was back on the roads reoffending less than 10 years later.

Hayley Russell was killed when the car she was in crashed on May 16, 2009. Picture: Contributed

Campbell was an 18-year-old learner driver with a blood-alcohol level of .117 when he killed Ms Russell after driving dangerously and losing control of the car on Windemere Rd, Alexandra Hills, on May 16 2009.

He was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years’ jail for dangerous driving causing death and grievous bodily harm with District Court Judge Leanne Clare ordering he be eligible for parole after serving 18 months.

Within two years of sentencing, he was out of jail and less than a decade later was back before Brisbane Magistrates Court in October 2020 facing 57 charges including dangerous and unlicensed driving, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, evading police and multiple break and enters.

In 2020, Brisbane Magistrate Gary Finger was told Campbell drove a stolen car into a police motorcycle, knocking the officer to the ground before mounting a city footpath and driving along it at up to 50km/h for 60m – all while he was on probation.

He disqualified Campbell from driving for four years and sentenced him to two years’ jail for the dangerous driving offences but placed him on immediate parole.

Judy Lindsay and her daughter Hayley Russell who died when the car she was in crashed in 2009. Picture: Contributed

“He took Hayley’s life and got 18 months in jail which is not long enough for killing someone,” Ms Lindsay said.

“It took two agonising years for him to be sentenced and when he was, he received seven-and-a-half years but was eligible for parole after 18 months — and got it.

“That is not good enough. Six years after he was released on parole for killing Hayley, he was back in custody for seven months for new offences.

“In 2020, he could have killed again when he drove a car down a one‐way street in Brisbane the wrong way, hitting parked vehicles and pedestrians running for their lives and knocking a policeman off a motorbike.

“Again, he was sentenced to two years in custody, but the judge said because he had already served seven months, he was to be released and could go home that day.

“I believe longer time in custody would make a difference to offenders’ attitudes and behaviour and if Campbell served at least five years of his 7.5-year sentence, he may not have reoffended, knowing there were serious consequences.”

Ms Lindsay said Campbell had just turned 18 when he took Hayley’s life and his time in custody was nothing more than a small inconvenience to his life.

“If we are hard on first-time offenders, they may think twice about repeating their crimes and it may help keep killers off our roads.”

Ms Lindsay said after her daughter’s death, she struggled for 10 years but managed to work closely with Queensland Police Service to make a documentary video which is now obligatory viewing for those charged with driving offences and is used to highlight the impact of alcohol, particularly for young road users.

The video retraces the heartbreaking night she received the harrowing phone call from police telling her that her daughter had died.

“Once you lose a child things are never the same and it took me 10 years before I felt like I could breathe again,” she said.

“The physical pain you feel when you lose a child is inexplicable and I thought I would not survive.

“People around you move on with their lives and I wanted it to stop.

“For me, to survive was to give into grief and in small steps, day by day, I cried rivers and rivers of tears and over the years the bad days became further apart.

“I still have bad days but you would never know, it’s a private thing for me.”

National Road Safety Week started on Saturday, the first day of the Labour Day long weekend, which is traditionally notorious for road fatalities.

Every year since 2013, Queensland has recorded at least one road fatality on the Labour Day long weekend with two deaths recorded in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022 and three in 2020 and 2023.

Originally published as Mum’s Labour Day plea for tougher jail terms to mark daughter’s shocking death