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District Court 17 October 2019

R v Moodie

[2019] NSWDC 822

DrugsTraffic & driving
CRIMINAL SENTENCE DANGEROUS DRIVING OCCASIONING DEATH UTILITY OF PLEA “LARGELY SQUANDERED” AMPHETAMINE & METHYLAMPHETAMINE ‘MOMENTARY DISTRACTION”

Citation: R v Moodie [2019] NSWDC 822
Court: District Court of New South Wales
Date: 17 October 2019
Judge: King SC DCJ

Background

The offender was a road train driver who, on 16 September 2016, was travelling north along the Cobb Highway approximately 10 kilometres south of Deniliquin. He was driving a prime mover with two transport trailers, returning after delivering cattle to Tongala in Victoria.

The deceased, Frederick Hanson, was travelling in the same direction on an orange tractor, under an unregistered vehicle permit that required him to travel at no more than 45 kilometres per hour. The road at the collision site was described as dead straight and dead flat, with clear sightlines and no obstructions.

The road train, travelling at between 90 and 100 kilometres per hour, collided with the rear of the tractor with tremendous force. The collision ejected Mr Hanson from the tractor; he was found in the grass and declared deceased at the scene. Blood analysis later revealed the offender had amphetamine and methylamphetamine in his system at the time of the collision.

  • What sentence was appropriate for dangerous driving occasioning death under s 52A(1)(c) of the Crimes Act 1900?
  • What discount, if any, was warranted for a guilty plea entered on the first day of trial, after a previously vacated trial date?
  • How should the presence of illicit substances in the offender's blood be treated in the sentencing assessment?
  • What disqualification period applied to the offender's driver licence, and how was any prior suspension to be accounted for?

Decision

King SC DCJ found that the guilty plea had been entered on the very first day of trial, after the matter had been prepared for trial on at least two separate occasions. The judge held that the utility of the plea had been "largely squandered" and therefore granted only a 5% discount, rather than the larger reduction available for earlier pleas.

The collision occurred on a road with no impediments to visibility. The judge found it extremely difficult to understand how the driver of a road train, seated at an elevated position on a straight and flat road, could fail to see a tractor until the moment of impact. The offender's explanation was that he had been distracted by monitoring vehicles in his mirrors. The agreed facts established that methylamphetamine in his blood impaired his driving by intensifying that momentary distraction.

The drug-related certificate offence (drive with illicit substance in blood, being a first offence) attracted only a financial penalty. His Honour addressed the dangerous driving offence as the principal matter, taking into account the agreed facts, the victim impact statements from Mr Hanson's family, and the offender's subjective circumstances. The judgment does not reproduce the precise term of imprisonment imposed in the portion of the text provided.

On the licence disqualification, the court initially ordered three years but then reconsidered. Taking into account the offender's licence suspension from 7 March 2017, the court ultimately imposed a five-year disqualification, with credit given for the period already suspended. This meant the practical balance of disqualification remaining at sentencing was approximately two and a half years.

Orders Made

• Mr Moodie is disqualified from holding a licence for a period of five years
• The disqualification is to take into account the period of suspension from 17 March 2017 until the date of the order

Key Takeaways

  • A guilty plea entered on the first day of trial, after the case had been prepared for trial on two prior occasions, will attract only a modest discount. Here the District Court limited that discount to 5%, describing the utility of the plea as "largely squandered."
  • Where an offender had illicit drugs in their blood at the time of a fatal collision, the agreed facts established that the substances impaired driving by intensifying a momentary distraction, even where the distraction itself (checking mirrors) was not inherently improper.
  • The sentencing court treated the physical characteristics of the road as a significant aggravating circumstance. A dead straight and dead flat road with unobstructed sightlines made the failure to observe a slow-moving, brightly coloured tractor far harder to explain.
  • Under s 205(2)(d) of the relevant road transport legislation, an automatic three-year disqualification applies in the absence of a specific court order. A court may impose a longer period and is required, under s 206(b), to take into account any suspension already served.
  • The certificate offence of driving with illicit substances in blood carried a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units only for a first offence, and was dealt with as a secondary matter alongside the principal dangerous driving charge.

Legislation and Cases Referenced

Legislation:
- Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), s 52A(1)(c) (dangerous driving occasioning death)
- Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW), s 166 (certificate offence procedure)
- Road transport legislation (NSW), ss 205(2)(d), 206(b) (licence disqualification provisions)

Cases cited: None stated in the judgment.