Taylah Blake charged with negligent driving causing motorcyclist injuries in Blakehurst crash

A former rowing teacher at a Victorian college will have to wait three weeks to learn her sentence for crashing into a motorcyclist in Sydney’s south, causing him significant injuries.

Taylah Blake, 28, pleaded guilty to negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and was due to be sentenced in Sutherland Local Court on Thursday. Picture: Ashleigh Tullis

A motorcyclist was left with gruesome injuries which required surgery after a psychology student collided with him in Sydney’s south, a court has heard.

Taylah Blake, 28, pleaded guilty to negligent driving causing grievous bodily harm and was due to be sentenced in Sutherland Local Court on Thursday.

Agreed facts tendered to court said Blake, who at the time was living in Cronulla but now lives in Victoria, was driving along Hatfield St, Blakehurst about 3.30pm on December 20 last year when she approached Coogarah St.

When she made a right turn, travelling well under the speed limit, Blake collided with a motorbike rider, causing him to be ejected and land on grass next to the road and her car’s airbags were deployed.

Emergency services arrived and the 51-year-old man was taken to St George Hospital.

He sustained a foot fracture, haematoma, stitches for cuts to the groin area as well as a fractured pelvis that required surgery to insert screws and plates.

The man required physiotherapy and rehabilitation for his injuries, the documents said.

Blake told police at the scene, “I looked for oncoming traffic before I turned in. I started to turn in and a motorbike collided with my car”.

Taylah Blake will be sentenced in Sutherland Local Court next month. Picture: Ashleigh Tullis

In court, Blake’s lawyer Wayne Pasterfield said his client was not working but was studying a Masters of Psychology full time in Victoria and needed her licence to attend placement.

He said if she lost her licence she would be unable to complete her university course and there was no guarantee she would be accepted back into the degree once her licence was reinstated.

He said she was a talented athlete and previously taught rowing to school students at a Ballarat college.

Mr Pasterfield said at the time of the collision Blake was working as a behavioural therapist with autistic children and was on her way to attend a client.

He told the court, prior to the collision, Blake was following a delivery truck that had to swerve around an illegally parked car causing her to lose sight of the road momentarily before she made the right turn.

Mr Pasterfield said his client had a good driving record and noted there was no evidence of the victim’s ongoing injuries.

He asked Magistrate Philip Stewart to not convict his client nor disqualify her from driving, but rather to be placed on a conditional release order that would require her to be of good behaviour for two years.

Mr Stewart adjourned the case until May 9 to consider his decision.

Originally published as Taylah Blake charged with negligent driving causing motorcyclist injuries in Blakehurst crash