“I went to the nearest house, I was banging on the door with blood everywhere”, says 14-year-old teenager Aysenour Koca.
“I believe he tried to kill me because I was not on the street. I was on the pathway. And he even saw me while he still came at me”.
“I thought he was going to hit me again from behind”.
It was a Friday afternoon, on the 12th of June, when Aysenour was walking home from school in Armadale, Perth.
As she was walking on the footpath along a suburban street, a motor vehicle travelling at a fast pace hit her in what can only be described as a savage collision.
Camera footage was obtained, depicting the driver of a white sedan accelerating along a suburban street before colliding straight into Aysenour.
The footage clearly shows the vehicle’s front and back off-side wheels to be on the footpath at the time of collision, with Aysenour on the front end of the car.
The car does not appear to make any attempts at slowing down moment before the impact.
Aysenour says that after the first impact, the driver drove away and came back.
At this point she says, that she threatened to call police if he were to get any closer. At that point she says, he fled the scene before returning later.
Upon returning to the scene, the driver was arrested by police.
Aysenour sustained significant injuries, including fractures on her back, broken arm and grazes across her body and face.
In NSW, dangerous driving under the law is considered when you drive a motor vehicle in a way or speed considered dangerous whether that danger is real or potential to the public. This has been expressed in a leading case of R v Buttswroth [1983].
Dangerous driving penalties attract up to 10-years behind bars if death results.
The maximum penalty is 7-years imprisonment for dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm in NSW, prescribed by section 52A(3) Crimes Act 1900 (NSW).
Aggravated dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm on the other hand has a penalty up to 11-years jail because it is a more serious kind of dangerous driving, according to law.
The case of R v Whyte [2002] NSWCCA has said for courts to generally sentence offenders to Full time jail. The exception to this, is if the offence has a smaller extent of ‘moral culpability’ (level of criminality).
A low level of criminality will be, for example, where the driver momentarily lost attention or misjudgement.
Whyte’s case also expresses that court ought to impose a 2-years jail sentence if the level of criminal responsibility. This can includes factors such as, amount of alcohol or drugs in the driver’s body at the time, how fast he/she was travelling, how many people were in the vehicle and seriousness of the injuries caused.
Grievous bodily harm under the law is considered to be harm that is either serious or permanent injury. It includes a really serious injury, either permanent or serious disfiguring such as broken bone(s).
Dangerous driving is different and more serious to negligent driving in NSW, according to law. Essentially, the difference is that dangerous driving has a greater level of negligence than negligent driving.
Have questions? Speak to our experienced criminal lawyers based in Parramatta today.