An elderly driver whose car crashed into and killed a motorcyclist last year has been sentenced in the County Court.
Harold Rayner, of Nagambie, was 87 when he was driving his Land Rover Discovery south on the Rushworth-Tatura Rd at Waranga Shores on March 17 last year.
Rayner’s car crashed head-on into a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, travelling in the opposite direction about 3.05pm.
The rider of the motorcycle, 61-year-old Leigh Watson, of Tasmania, sustained multiple injuries.
The cause of his death was found to be a cervical spine fracture sustained on impact with the car.
Rayner avoided jail when sentenced in the County Court on Monday, February 19 on a charge of dangerous driving causing death.
In sentencing, Judge Scott Johns said if not for a range of substantial and compelling circumstances, Rayner would have been jailed.
Instead, he handed Rayner a three-year community corrections order that included 250 hours of community work, a $5000 fine and the suspension of his licence for four years.
Judge Johns told the court that the charge of driving dangerously causing death was a category two offence requiring a custodial sentence unless the substantial and compelling circumstances test was met.
“In your particular case, I’ve found, due to a range of circumstances, that test is met,” he said.
Judge Johns listed Rayner’s guilty plea, his remorse, the hardship he would experience in jail and his exemplary life up until the offending among the reasons why the test was met.
“I’m satisfied you have deep and genuine remorse for the impacts of your offence,” Judge Johns said.
But he also said Mr Watson had been “robbed” of many of the things Rayner had enjoyed in later life.
“Were it not for your plea of guilt, I would have sentenced you to 18 months of jail with a non-parole period of seven months,” he said.
Mr Watson was visiting Victoria, NSW and the ACT as part of a group of 12 riders taking part in ‘Eliza’s Ride’, which raises money for epidermolysis bullosa disease.
At the time of the collision, Rayner was driving to his home in Nagambie after travelling to Kyabram earlier in the day.
An inspection of his vehicle did not find any faults.
During the case, prosecutors argued that on approach to a right-hand bend before a single-lane bridge, Rayner swerved into the northbound lane to avoid a rear-end collision with a Toyota Rav4 travelling in the same direction.
That vehicle had slowed to comply with a 30 km/h speed limit before the bridge.
As a result of him swerving into the right-hand lane, Rayner’s vehicle collided with Mr Watson’s motorcycle.
The impact of the collision threw Mr Watson down an embankment on the western side of the road.
Despite the efforts of fellow motorcyclists who applied CPR and paramedics when they arrived, he was pronounced dead at the scene.