A driver on P-plates has avoided a prison sentence after pleading guilty to dangerous driving that caused the death of a bike rider on Black Forest Drive in Woodend, Victoria in October last year.
Twenty-year-old Amelie Sacha Vergez, of Fern Hill, was sentenced in the Bendigo County Court to a two-and-a-half-year community corrections order, with 200 hours of unpaid community work. Her licence was cancelled for 18 months from the date of the crash.
Dr Lindsay Smyrk, 75, a retired university economist from Gisborne, was struck on his way home from a ride with the Macedon Ranges Cycling Club on October 9, 2022.
Dr Smyrk was riding safely in the broad shoulder of the road, with a flashing light, and although highly visible to other traffic, Vergez admitted she had not observed the rider.
At the plea hearing, the court heard that no brake lights were seen before the car hit the cyclist.
There was no evidence that mobile phone use, alcohol, drugs, or speeding were factors in the crash, however Vergez told police she was "really tired" at the time of the crash.
Usually, the charge of dangerous driving causing death carries a mandatory custodial period.
If it not for guilty plea, Judge Stewart Bayles said he would have sentenced Vergez to two years of imprisonment with a non-parole period of 10 months.
Both the prosecutor and the defence agreed there was cause for an exemption, due to the level of trauma Vergez was experiencing.
Judge Bayles said character witnesses had said in submissions to the court that Vergez was a changed person because of what happened, and that she was "engulfed in grief and despair”.
"I accept you are truly sorry for your offending and deeply remorseful," the judge said.
Judge Bayles said that Vergez stepped into the witness box and faced Dr Smyrk's family after hearing three moving victim impact statements and apologised for the pain she had caused.
He said that Dr Smyrk's family had shown sympathy towards Vergez. "This is something that is not often seen in these matters,” he said.
Black Forest Drive has been the scene of a number of similar tragic rider deaths.
It forms part of the former Calder Highway and was the main route from Melbourne to Bendigo before the nearby, parallel freeway was built.
Because of its low traffic volumes and wide, straight lanes, some drivers fail to maintain the appropriate level of concentration, with terrible consequences.
Former highways of this type are usually decommissioned and reduced in capacity to prevent such safety outcomes, but local political opposition over 20 years has blocked these initiatives.
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