Jailed for tragic car smash

A P-PLATER was yesterday jailed for causing a car crash on the Bellarine Peninsula that left his female passenger with severe lifelong injuries.

Jack Andrew Benjamin, 22, was not speeding and had no drugs or alcohol in his system on July 3 last year.

But the rookie driver’s “inexcusably long period of inattention” had “profound and life-changing” consequences for his 19-year-old former schoolmate Fleur Armstong, County Court judge Paul Grant said.

A talented Drysdale singer, Miss Armstrong suffered a “severe traumatic brain injury” and fractures to her ribs and pubic bone, and is now confined to a wheelchair, requiring daily specialist care.

“(She) can’t live independently or cater for herself,” Judge Grant said.

Distracted in conversation with Miss Armstrong, the then 20-year-old drove past a warning sign before failing to obey a give way at the intersection of Portarlington-Queenscliff Rd and Anderson Rd at Swan Bay.

He did not see another vehicle entering the intersection-and slammed into it, sending both vehicles into a spin.

Benjamin’s Holden Commodore smashed into a tree, with Miss Armstrong trapped in the wreckage.

It took emergency crews 50 minutes to extract her before she was taken to hospital and placed in a coma. She spent the next nine months in hospital and has required constant medical support since.

The other driver’s collarbone was broken and her sternum fractured.

Although the P-plater cooperated with police and pleaded guilty at an early opportunity to two counts of dangerous driving causing serious injury, Judge Grant said the case demanded a strong message be sent to the community.

He said young male drivers were responsible for a disproportionate percentage of serious road crashes, and therefore the defendant’s youth was less of a factor in mitigating his sentence.

The court heard the crash happened as darkness fell, with Benjamin failing to see the intersection warning sign or the give way sign about 170m and 11 seconds later.

“You needed to be alert and attentive to those conditions. You were not,” the judge said.

“Your failure to see the two signs is not a momentary or fleeting lapse of attention or a mere error of judgement. It’s an inexcusably long period of inattention.”

There were tears in the court room when Judge Grant confirmed Benjamin’s ninemonth jail term. When that time is served the man will need to do 200 hours of unpaid community work as part of a two-year corrections order. He was disqualified from driving for two years.