IT was peak hour on the Pacific Highway on a Tuesday afternoon in November, 2022 when Adam Harvey got behind the wheel after drinking four beers at the Gateshead Tavern.
And it wasn't long before Harvey was spotted driving "erratically" and "dangerously", his Volkswagen hatch overtaking and undertaking at speed as he approached heavy traffic on the Pacific Highway.
And when Harvey suddenly merged across from left to right, his car smashed into the back of a stationary vintage motorcycle at a red light at Bennetts Green, crushing the bike and sending the rider flying five metres through the air and over the top of another car.
Harvey had not seen the bike and did not brake before the impact, his vehicle forcing the bike forward and crushing it between two cars.
The male rider who was thrown up into the air landed on the back windscreen of a Toyota Aurion, which had stopped in front of the Corolla.
The windscreen smashed and the rider fell onto the roadway suffering spinal fractures.
His partner and pillion passenger was also thrown from the bike and landed on the road where witnesses found her face down and unresponsive. She had suffered a fractured pelvis and leg and required surgery to insert screws into her ankle.
Harvey immediately admitted to causing the crash, telling witnesses and police who arrived on scene that he was at fault.
"The guy in the grey car said it was his fault, that he changed lanes and didn't see the motorcyclist and hit the motorcyclists," a witness told police.
Harvey was breath tested and returned a positive result, telling police his last drink was about 20 minutes before the crash.
He later recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.120 - in the mid-range of drink driving and more than double the legal limit.
Harvey, 44, has a good work history, no prior criminal record, had shown remorse and taken steps to address his issues with alcohol.
And after abandoning, to a degree, his responsibility while he was behind the wheel that afternoon, Harvey took responsibility and pleaded guilty to two counts of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, earning himself at 25 per cent discount.
Regardless of all that, late on Friday afternoon he was taken down to the courthouse cells to begin serving a jail term for causing the crash, a judge sending a message to the community about the dangers of drink driving.
Judge Peter McGrath had been urged to spare Harvey a jail term and instead place him on an intensive corrections order, but he spoke at length about the importance of general deterrence due to the prevalence of driving and the terrible consequences that come from driving dangerously.
"The risk that any driver could commit an offence resulting in death or severe injury means that all drivers must be deterred from driving dangerously by the sentences imposed on those who transgress," Judge McGrath said.
He jailed Harvey for a maximum of two years, with a non-parole period of 14 months, meaning he will be released on parole on Christmas Eve, 2025.
