If a driver had "kept a proper look out" he would have easily seen Craig O'Neill riding his Harley Davidson motorbike, a judge has said.
Instead, Sean Joshua Walton, behind the wheel of a truck, crashed into the father-of-two in Holt on June 18, 2024.
Mr O'Neill, 47, died leaving his daughters, family and loved ones heartbroken.
In the ACT Supreme Court on Friday, June 19, the day after the second anniversary of the father's tragic death, Walton avoided time behind bars.
Acting Justice Peter Berman handed the man a one-year-and-two-month prison sentence, wholly suspended upon him entering into a good behaviour order.
In May 2026, Walton, aged in his mid-40s, was found guilty by a jury of negligent driving causing death. He was found not guilty of the more serious charge of culpable driving causing death.
In victim impact statements read to the court last week, Mr O'Neill's two daughters spoke of their loss.
The eldest daughter described him as "a big bear of a man" who drove a "really loud Harley-Davidson motorbike".
She recalled speaking to her father on the phone the day before the fatal crash, telling the court: "If I had known that was the last time I heard his voice, I would have tried to make that last for hours."
The younger daughter, who was only 10 when he died, told the court that she missed the sound of her father's voice, his laugh, smell and the "silly words he used to make up".
"I miss our holidays and how he never got to take my sister and I to the Great Barrier Reef like he promised," she said.
On Friday, Justice Berman found that Walton had looked at oncoming traffic before turning, but he was concentrating on a red car "to the exclusion of other traffic".
"Had the offender kept a proper look out he would've seen the motorcycle, and easily so," the judge said.
"[Walton] was negligent to a significant degree."
The judge found that Walton was "profoundly remorseful" and "understands deeply what he has done and the harm he has caused".
Walton was also disqualified from driving for nine months.
