Bus driver sentenced for causing death by negligent driving

A bus driver has been sentenced for killing a father and his two-year-old daughter in a fatal crash in 2020.

A bus driver has avoided jail time for killing a father and his two-year-old daughter in a fatal crash.

On Friday, Christine Helen Chatterton faced the Hobart Magistrates Court for sentencing after being found guilty on two counts of causing death by negligent driving.

She was given a criminal conviction for the two offences, plus a three month term of imprisonment wholly suspended on the condition she commit no further crimes.

She was also charged a $90.1 victims of crime levy and $40 in court costs.

The scene of the double fatality on Algona Road between Kingston and Blackmans Bay.

During sentencing Magistrate Maria Duvnjak said this was on the “lower end of the scale” when it came to culpability.

She said Chatterton had not been speeding, drunk, inattentive, or too close to the front car at the time of the collision.

She noted Chatterton had 37 years experience as a bus driver, had never been involved in a crash, and had only positive reviews from her employer.

“The circumstances of this case are unusual. There is an absence of similar factual cases that were able to be put to me or I was able to locate,” Ms Duvnjak said.

Helen Chatterton leaves the Hobart Magistrates Court after being sentenced for two counts of causing death by negligent driving. Picture: Kenji Sato

The court had found that on the day Chatterton had “excessively” slammed the brakes, causing the tires to lock and the bus to skid on the road.

The 69-year-old Blackmans Bay woman had been driving a white 1998 Hino passenger bus before colliding with a sedan and two other cars in Huntingfield in 2020.

The crash killed a 42-year-old dad and his 2-year-old daughter, both of whom The Mercury has chosen not to name.

Floral tributes and a small toy unicorn lay at the fatal crash site on Algona Road, where a Huntingfield father and his young daughter were killed in a car crash in 2020. Photo: Phil Young

Ms Duvnjak said Chatterton’s actions led to the “immeasurable sadness, loss, and grief” to the family of the deceased.

“No sentence by this court could ever be said to be the measure of the lives lost,” Ms Duvnjak said.

She said Chatteron had chosen not to renew her bus driver’s licence, believing herself to be no longer able to confidently be behind the wheel of a bus.

Chatteron continues to work at the company, but only in an administrative role.