OUT of the pitch black screams an out-of-control car, sparking and rotating before it careers into a telegraph pole with a loud bang, striking two young women standing nearby.
"Oh no, oh no," says a man filming the burnout on his mobile phone. "That is bad. F---ing hell."
The women, like 40 or so others, were spectators who had gathered by the side of the normally quiet stretch of road at North Arm Cove late on the night of March 15 this year to watch a number of hoons do burnouts. But now they were seriously injured; one woman, 20, had a fractured pelvis, while a 14-year-old girl had a depressed skull fracture and internal injuries.
Not long after the video ends, while emergency services were on route to treat the injured woman, someone strips the number plates from the white Ford Falcon and it is promptly set on fire.
At some point the driver, Daniel James Bevear, 22, left the scene.
The five-second video, captured on the mobile phone of one of the bystanders at the popular hoon spot on Somerset Avenue, was the subject of some contention in Raymond Terrace Local Court on Wednesday.
Bevear's lawyer, Robert Daoud, had said it did not need to be played in court, telling Magistrate Justin Peach the description in court documents of the burnout and subsequent crash was sufficient for him to determine the seriousness.
But prosecutors had pushed to have it played, saying: "words cannot describe enough how serious this matter is".
Ultimately, Mr Peach had the video played and watched as a speeding white Falcon emerged from the dark and spun out of control down the road, a blur before it smashed into the telegraph pole and hit the two victims.
Mr Daoud had submitted that Bevear's mental health diagnoses meant he could be dealt with under the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Act, but the video was one of the factors that led Mr Peach to reject the application and determine the crash was too serious for the driver to be diverted into a mental health treatment plan.
Bevear, who was suspended from driving at the time of the crash and has a history of performing burnouts, then pleaded guilty to two counts of causing bodily harm by misconduct, negligent driving and driving while suspended.
After the crash, instead of helping the women, Mr Bevear allegedly removed the number plates from the car and set it on fire before leaving the scene in what police have called an attempt to tamper with evidence.
He handed himself into police three days later and, according to court documents, at that time had "not asked about the welfare of the victims".
But on Wednesday Bevear pleaded not guilty to tampering with evidence and the court heard he denies setting the vehicle on fire after the crash, Mr Daoud claiming that happened after he left the scene.
Bevear will face a hearing on the charge relating to the vehicle fire before he is sentenced for the crash and other driving matters. The matter was adjourned to September 14 when a hearing date will be set.
