In short:
Two students who were seriously injured when a truck driver ran a red light have told a court of the long-lasting impact the accident has had on their lives.
Sang Van Huynh has pleaded guilty to causing serious harm by dangerous driving over the crash in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs last year.
What’s next?
Huynh will be sentenced next month.
An Adelaide truck driver who struck two teenagers outside their high school ran a light nine seconds after it turned red, a court has heard.
Sang Van Huynh, 61, was driving a truck along Kensington Road near Marryatville High School in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs in March last year when he ran a red light and hit two 16-year-old students.
Neither student recalls the incident.
Huynh previously pleaded guilty to two counts of causing serious harm by dangerous driving.
On Thursday, District Court Judge Paul Muscat said Huynh ran the light nine seconds after it turned red.
The court also heard Huynh had dodged two cars stopped in the right-hand lane, before cutting in front of a stationary bus in the left lane.
“In the right-hand lane there were two vehicles stopped at the pedestrian crossing and in the left-hand lane there was a bus stopped a distance from the crossing,” Judge Muscat said.
“The evidence is he moved from the right-hand lane, cut in front of the bus and straight through the traffic light.
“As I understand the evidence … the lights had been red for a number of seconds … for nine seconds.”
Defence lawyer Martin Anders told the court his client’s actions amounted to “gross inattention” rather than other factors such as being under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Prosecutor Tracey Nelson read to the court multiple victim impact statements penned by the students and their family members.
The mother of one student, Katherine Hill, said she would never forget the moment the school called and said her son had been involved in a pedestrian accident.
“I drove my car to as close as I could get to the accident, parked, ran up the road while seeing traffic stopped, road closed and police cars and emergency cars flashing up ahead,” she said.
“Running along the road trying to breathe and cry at the same time, and then to have two or three more ambulances, rush past me … with the lights and sirens going.”
Ms Hill said she knew then her son was involved in a “seriously significant accident”.
“What came next [were] shock and fear of the unknown and whether he was going to be OK,” she said.
Her son, who sustained a traumatic brain injury in the incident, told the court he had no recollection of the morning before the accident, or for two to three weeks after it.
He told the court his life has “completely changed” after the accident and was “still different today”.
“I have no memory of the morning leading up the accident nor the accident, it wasn’t until two-to-three weeks after the accident that I think I had my first memory, although it isn’t very consistent or clear,” he said.
“I was in the Royal Adelaide Hospital and unable to walk due to having a rod sticking out of my pelvis due to multiple fractures.
“I got around in a wheelchair and couldn’t actually weight-bear fully for eight weeks.”
Ms Nelson also read a statement to the court on behalf of the female student, who suffered several injuries including multiple rib fractures and broken teeth.
“As I don’t remember the accident, most of my time in the hospital, or the following weeks, my psychological impact directly from that is low — unlike the many people who were there and who remember the days surrounding it, like many of my friends and family,” she said.
In their submissions, both Ms Nelson and Mr Anders agreed a suspended sentence and disqualified licence would be an appropriate penalty.
As he left court after the hearing, Huynh told the media he was “sorry” for the incident.
Judge Muscat will sentence Huynh next month.