Victim shows incredible sympathy for P-plater who travelled at 200km/h in breakdown lane before M1 smash

DASHCAM footage shows a P-plater with cannabis in his system going 200km/h before ploughing into another car, leaving a woman with a broken neck and a brain injury.

• Stoned P-plater in 200km/h crash

A P-PLATER who travelled 200km/h in the breakdown lane with cannabis in his system before ploughing into another vehicle — sending it crashing over a guardrail — later giggled to police “it worked, it got rid of the car”.

Kayden James Lawson was sentenced yesterday to four years’ jail with a non-parole period of just two years and six months following the shocking collision at 6.48am on November 10, 2014 on the M1 Pacific Motorway at Morisset.

Dash cam footage tendered in Gosford District Court shows the moment his Holden Commodore passes a northbound truck before the 22-year-old slammed into the rear of a Toyota Hilux sending it smashing through a guard rail and plummeting 10m off a bridge to an embankment below.

The victim, Kristyn Rourke, who was nearly killed in the crash, showed incredible sympathy as she spoke to the media after the sentencing.

A courageous Kristyne Rourke, who suffered a fractured neck spoke to the media after Lawson was sentenced yesterday. Picture: Mark Scott

Kayden Lawson, 22, of Killarney Vale, leaving Gosford District Court, received a non-parole sentence of two-and-a-half years..

On the footage the truck driver, who was talking with another truck driver further up the road on two-way radio, can be heard saying, ‘F**k me, he made the truck rock when he went past’.”

Later the other driver in the truck ahead tells the driver to “Pull it up Ben, pull it up”, after Lawson slammed into the Hilux driven by then 38-year-old senior property manager Kristyn Rourke.

“He’s just killed someone I think,” the other driver can be heard saying.

The Toyota Hilux was shunted 10m off the side of a bridge on the M1 at Morisset. Photo: Westpac Rescue Helicopter

Police used the footage to calculate Lawson was travelling between 193 to 203km/h.

Lawson stood emotionless in the dock when Judge Mark Buscombe sentenced him to four years’ jail for dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm with illicit drugs present in his system and failing to stop to render assistance.

With his non-parole period of two and a half years he will be eligible for release on August 12, 2019.

Kristyn Rourke in hospital.

What was left of her Hilux.

Kristyn doesn’t remember the incident.

She was trapped for an hour.

The court heard Lawson got out of his Commodore after the crash and took off on his skateboard.

Another motorist who stopped, tried to chase him on foot but later got back into his car and found him about a kilometre down the road with his finger out trying to hitchhike.

The witness picked him up, did a U-turn and returned him to the crash site where others stood around the car to make sure he did not try and flee again.

Meanwhile Ms Rourke was trapped in the wreckage of her car for an hour barely clinging to life.

Among her shocking list of injuries were the loss of her right ear, the near “complete traumatic amputation” of her left arm and the de-gloving of her face.

The judge said Kayden Lawson was “clearly psychotic” at the time of the crash. Picture: Facebook

Ms Rourke also suffered a fractured neck and a lifelong brain injury.

Judge Buscombe said Lawson “giggled” when police spoke to him in hospital after the crash where he told them, “It worked, it got rid of the car”.

Lawson ended up as an involuntary mental health patient for seven months in the wake of the crash and the judge said medical assessments found he was an undiagnosed schizophrenic who smoked three “cones” a day in the 12 months prior.

He said Lawson was suffering paranoid delusions at the time and believed he had grandiose “giant powers” to drive like a lunatic.

Judge Buscombe also found him guilty of driving with an illicit drug in his system and disqualified him from driving for five years.

Kristyn Rourke leaves Gosford Court supported by family and friends to begin the rest of her life. Picture: Mark Scott

Judge Buscombe said he afforded Lawson a 25 per cent discount for his guilty pleas and found his “moral culpability” was reduced because he was clearly psychotic at the time.

Outside court Ms Rourke said she was just happy the matter was over and remarkably said she felt “a bit sorry for him”.

“Regardless of the sentence nothing changes for me I guess, I’m just pleased it’s the closure of that chapter,” she said.

“It’s been probably a bit surreal because I don’t have a memory of the accident, I obviously just know of the injuries, so it’s been a bit tough but I feel a bit sorry for him as well [because] he’s not well.”

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Originally published as Victim shows incredible sympathy for P-plater who travelled at 200km/h in breakdown lane before M1 smash