Negar Barjestehmanesh was driving along a Canberra road with her young son in the car nearly four years ago when she was struck by a drunk driver.
The driver of the other vehicle was travelling at about 200kph in an 80kph zone.
The impact of the crash was devastating for Ms Barjestehmanesh, and she is still suffering from the effects even now.
"The impact, it was mentally, it was physically ... the whole family, my immediate family members and then also any supporters that I've got here as a family, they've been impacted too," she said.
Ms Barjestehmanesh was among those who gave evidence at an ACT Legislative Assembly inquiry this week into dangerous driving, sharing her story of recovery.
She has also joined a growing call for tougher sentences for offenders.
Victim speaks of lengthy emotional and physical toll of crash
Ms Barjestehmanesh's does not remember the crash that changed her life forever.
"My son, who was six years old at that time, he remembers everything, and he was shouting and traumatised," she said.
"My bones were sticking out of my arms, and my hip and my ankle."
She is still being treated for her injuries.
"Still I've got another surgery happening in December, I've got another two surgeries on my arms," she said.
She said she was also forgetful and struggled to remember where she was going while out of the house.
She has also only recently started driving again, and is in awe of what she and her family have been through.
"I could be dead," she said.
"That was the miracle — that I came out of that car alive. I don't know how.
"The impact on every aspect of my life, it's huge."
She and her son are still receiving psychological support.
Ms Barjestehmanesh said her recovery was made more difficult by the challenge she faced in getting insurance money to cover her medical costs.
She told the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety it can be a tricky process working with insurance companies to get payment for treatment.
"I need physio, I need surgery, this is what the GP said, this is what the doctors, specialists said, and until the other party doesn't plead guilty, we are not liable, and this plea guilty can go up to 18 months," she said.
Now she hopes her story will inspire others to instigate stronger measures to ensure no-one else has to suffer as she has.
"It's incumbent on us to listen to these lived experiences, because their understanding of how the system is impacted on them and the aftermath of life-altering circumstances is vital to understand," she said.
"At this stage, the consequences are not enough for the dangerous driving for them to stop doing that."
No reform needed, says ACT director of public prosecutions
So far, 18 people have died on Canberra roads this year, compared to 11 by this time last year.
Last month, three families of young people who died in car crashes came together to call for changes to the ACT's sentencing laws.
Among them were the parents of Matthew McLuckie, who was 20 when he was killed by a driver travelling on the wrong side of the road in May.
They were joined by the parents of four-year-old Blake Corney and 19-year-old Lachlan Seary, who each died in crashes in 2018 and 2021 respectively.
They called for an independent review of ACT sentencing laws and expressed frustration with the rate of re-offending among offenders.
Helen Watchirs, who spoke at the inquiry on behalf of Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates, said victims of road crashes and their families had complex needs which often continued for years.
Responding to questions from the committee on Friday, ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold said despite the concerns of Ms Barjestehmanesh, he did not support legislative reform.
Mr Drumgold said the danger of reforming bail laws was that they could negatively impact those for whose crimes did not fit the punishment.
"My general view is that law reform should be based on logic rather than emotion," Mr Drumgold said.
"So there needs to be some sort to of issue that's sought to be achieved by law reform. There needs to be some measure of what it's seeking to achieve some measure of how it's seeking to achieve it.
"But importantly, it also needs to examine what might be captured that we might not want to capture and then ultimately there needs to be an assessment of how well this is achieving, what it's seeking to achieve, and what unintended ramifications might there be."
He said a review was held into dangerous driving offence laws was held in 2011 and they were brought into line with other jurisdictions.
"The work has been done in the past," he said.
Mr Drumgold added that recidivism was a complex issue and that it was important to accurately interpret data.
"If you have a really serious, culpable driving causing death [offence] and subsequently, you have a low-range PCA [offence], you would technically be a recidivist, so even the term recidivism needs a judicial mind brought to it to work out the relevance of that for this particular offence," he said.
The inquiry chair, Peter Cain, said the committee hoped to complete its report by early next year.
