A Hunter man who caused a car crash that left a seven-month-old girl with severe lifelong brain damage has escaped a term of full-time custody.
Damon Beddow, 47, was sentenced to an Intensive Correction Order in Newcastle District Court on Thursday over the smash at Eleebana two years ago.
An Intensive Correction Order is viewed as essentially a jail sentence served in the community. As part of his sentence of two years and four months, Beddow will perform 100 hours of community service. He has also been disqualified from driving for 12 months.
The court heard that Beddow had illicit drugs in his system at the time of the crash - including trace amounts of amphetamine, methamphetamine and methadone - but that experts could not say beyond reasonable doubt whether those substances would have affected his driving.
Beddow was on his way from Lake Macquarie to his home at Abermain on the night of October 19, 2020, when he lost control of his vehicle on a right-hand bend and spun onto the wrong side of Bareki Road, near the intersection of Eleebana Road.
A car carrying a young family - an adult couple and two young girls - could not stop in time and crashed into the passenger side of Beddow's vehicle.
A seven-month-old girl suffered head injuries that Judge Peter Whitford, SC, described in court on Thursday as "nothing short of catastrophic".
The court heard that the baby suffered a "lifelong brain injury", skull fractures, bleeding in and around her brain and the death of brain tissue in several places. She has had multiple surgeries since the crash.
The court heard that medical experts believed she would live the remainder of her life with a severe disability, described as "acquired cerebral palsy", and would never become independent.
Her five-year-old sister was taken to hospital with fractures after the crash.
Beddow sustained pelvic fractures, which required surgery, among other injuries.
Judge Whitford said the child seats carrying the two children were not properly anchored inside the vehicle.
But he said Beddow caused the crash by driving at excessive speed - he was not breaking the legal limit, however he was travelling faster than signposted warnings recommended when approaching the bend.
Beddow received a 25 per cent discount on his sentence for pleading guilty at the earliest possible opportunity. He pleaded guilty in May to dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, causing bodily harm by misconduct and driving with an illicit substance present in his blood.
