A 22-year-old P-Plater has been sentenced to four years jail after causing a crash when he drove 200kph in the breakdown lane on a highway before slamming into a car and attempting to abandon the scene.
Dash cam footage recorded by a truck driver captures the moment when the Commodore driven by Kayden James Lawson, then 20, zooms past his rig.
‘F**k me, he make the truck rock when he went past,’ says a driver over the two way radio.
‘He’s crashed mate, he’s crashed!’ came the reply from a driver further up the road.
Lawson had hit the back of Toyota Hilux, driven by Kristyn Rourke, causing it to smash through a guard rail and plummet 10 metres into an embankment below.
Lawson attempted to flee the scene, but nearby drivers pulled over and kept him there until police arrived.
Judge Buscombe heard in court that Lawson was suffering paranoid delusions at the time and was suffering undiagnosed schizophrenia. When he was drug tested he was found to have cannabis in his system.
Ms Rourke is lucky to have survived the accident – however the crash caused her to lose an ear, almost lose an arm, and she suffered a fractured neck and traumatic brain injury as a result.
Outside court she told reporters that she’s glad that the ordeal is over, and that she even feels ‘a bit sorry’ for Lawson because of ‘he’s not well.’
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