Truck driver Matthew Livingston likely to be jailed over death of Harriett Peckitt
A truck driver who killed a two-year-old girl in a horrific crash that involved five cars was “weaving over the road” before the incident.
A Victorian man who drove a truck weighing more than 40 tonnes into the back of a stationary car containing a family of four, killing a two-year-old girl, will spend his first night in prison on Tuesday night.
Matthew Livingston arrived in the County Court on Tuesday for the second day of his plea hearing over the 2021 incident.
Livingston, 44, has pleaded guilty to 13 charges, including culpable driving causing death, negligently causing serious injury and placing others at risk of serious injury.
Ahead of Livingston’s sentencing on Friday morning, County Court Judge Michael Tinney cancelled Livingston’s bail.
Earlier on Tuesday, Judge Tinney had foreshadowed that Livingstone would be jailed for the offending.
“He’s going to prison and he understands that,” Judge Tinney said,
He also said any submission that did not include a term of imprisonment for Livingston would be “unthinkable”.
Livingstone has also pleaded guilty to a number of offences regulating the conduct of drivers of heavy vehicles such as trucks.
The incident, which involved five cars, occurred on the afternoon of December 6, 2021, on a major freeway on Melbourne’s northern urban fringe.
Livingston, who the court was told was employed by Victorian transport company Hendy Holdings, was driving a 43-tonne truck when he struck a stationary Volkswagen Tiguan on the Calder Freeway in Diggers Rest.
The Peckitt family were inside the Tiguan, and the force of the impact killed two-year-old Harriet Peckitt instantly and left her parents with serious injuries.
Defence barrister Phillip Bloeman, who is acting for Livingston, said his client was expecting to go to prison as a result.
But Mr Bloeman said his client, who now works at a biscuit factory in his native town of Donald, about three hours northwest of Melbourne, had been a “hard working and contributing member of the community” throughout his life and a “provider and bread winner for his family.”
Prosecutor Grant Hayward said charges against Hendy Holdings were also being considered, and the court was told Livingston had provided a statement to police on Tuesday morning to assist their ongoing investigation into his former employer.
Mr Hayward told Judge Tinney that he could be satisfied Livingston was “sleepy” when he crashed into the back of the Peckitts’ Tiguan and said dashcam footage captured prior to the crash “clearly shows the accused’s vehicle weaving over the road”.
He said Livingston did not break his truck until less than a second prior to impact despite the presence of warning signs that indicated a 40km/h zone was imminent.
“(Livingstone) He really ought to have been attentive,” Mr Hayward said.
He said the maximum penalty for culpable driving was 20 years in prison, with a standard sentence of eight years.
On Monday, Felicity Stewart, Harriet Peckitt’s mother, told the court the family had returned from the UK to Victoria, where they had decided to raise their family.
Ms Stewart, who was a history and English teacher prior to the crash, said she and her husband had gone through “something that no family should be forced to endure”.
The court was told she suffered 54 days of post-traumatic amnesia after the incident and remains afflicted by an acquired brain injury.
Simon Peckitt, who held hands with his wife in the front row of the courtroom throughout the two-day hearing, told the court on Monday, “I still remember the scream I made the first time I saw (Harriet’s) lifeless body.”
Livingston will be sentenced on Friday.