Andrew Nichols: Jenny Webb speaks after losing husband in Sunraysia Hwy crash

The wife of a man killed in a crash on the Sunraysia Hwy in 2019 says the person she was died when police told her he wasn’t coming home.

The wife of a man killed in a crash on the Sunraysia Highway three years ago has told a court she has “lost everything”.

Andrew Nichols, 35, appeared in the County Court at Melbourne via video link from prison on Tuesday.

His appearance came after a jury had previously found him guilty of one charge of dangerous driving causing the death of Max Webb near Donald on the afternoon of March 11, 2019.

His wife Jenny told the court she and her “beautiful husband” and “soulmate” had been married for 32 years, 10 months and eight days when two policemen knocked on her front to tell her, her husband “wasn’t coming home”.

“Nothing on earth can prepare you for being told such a thing,” she said. “The wonderful world I shared with Max shattered in that moment and the beautiful life with him was gone.”

Reading her emotional victim impact statement to the court, she said she and her husband were third generation farmers who worked side-by-side to run their farm.

But since her husband’s death she had needed to make the difficult decision to lease the farm and sell most of the equipment as “the harsh reality” was that she could not run it on her own.

“All the things we’d worked so hard for, looked after so well and were so proud of are now gone,” an emotional Mrs Webb said.

Describing how she and her husband “shared a love and devotion for each other that is so rare”, she detailed the physical, mental and emotional impacts of the profound “innermost grief” she continues to feel.

“I am not the person I was before March 11 2019 – that person died with Max. You cannot love somebody so deeply as I loved him and just move on.

“I have tried very hard to work through my grief and become someone again but that seems so futile when all I want is Max.

“The man may be gone but the love we shared and memories we created will be forever.”

Mrs Webb said she cried daily for her husband and not having the chance to say goodbye to him “haunt[ed] her constantly”.

“In losing Max I have lost everything – my husband, my lover, my best friend, my rock, protector and business partner.”

The court also heard victim impact statements from their daughter and one of their grandchildren about how losing a man who had “no limits to his love” had affected them.

Prosecutor Jordan Johnston said the crash did not happen “without warning” but occurred in a sequence leading to his car driving at least half its length off the road before Nichols overcorrected and in doing so lost control and veered into the other lane where he collided with Mr Webb’s car.

The court heard the prosecution case earlier put to the jury was that Nichols had driven dangerously by way of “impatient driving and erratic speeding” before the collision.

It was also said he failed to exercise reasonable care where it should have been apparent the road required “extra care and attention”, for example due to it being particularly narrow, on a bend and because there was no physical barrier between the two lanes.

While Mr Webb was killed, Nichols was airlifted to hospital due to bone fractures to his clavicle, pelvis and knee.

He also tore his colon and has needed to use a colostomy bag for the past three years. It was removed following surgery in early June.

Defence lawyer Lucien Richter conceded the cause of the crash was “insufficient care” but submitted the offending was at the lower end of the scale for dangerous driving causing death.

While the court was told Nichols had a criminal history with relevant prior conditions and was on parole at the time of the crash, his lawyer said he had led a challenging life and was remorseful about what had happened.

The court was told Nichols was issued a ticket and his licence was suspended for speeding two weeks before the crash.

After being released from hospital and relapsing into drug use he was arrested on the dangerous driving charge and for separate driving offences from a different day.

The defence and prosecution will submit written submissions on the balance of the issues remaining and Nichols will be sentenced by Judge Frances Hogan on a date to be fixed.