A GRANDMOTHER has tearfully told an Armidale court she feared sleeping after being behind the wheel in a crash that killed her baby granddaughter.
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Jeanette Hayes, 48, had been driving to Uralla in March last year when she lost control of her car while overtaking a truck on Uralla Road.
She careered into the path of an oncoming Laser sedan before coming to rest in a table drain.
Her two sons, daughter-in-law and two-month-old granddaughter Sophie Hayes were passengers in her Commodore sedan.
Sophie was thrown from her capsule in the impact and was unable to be revived.
“I can’t sleep, I’m scared to close my eyes,” Hayes told Armidale District Court at her sentencing hearing on Wednesday.
Sophie’s mother Finlay Doyle suffered a fractured pelvis and head trauma in the accident and was transported to John Hunter Hospital.
Hayes was charged with dangerous driving occasioning death and grievous bodily harm, but those charges were dropped after she struck a plea bargain with prosecutors. She instead pleaded guilty to one count each of negligent driving occasioning death, and negligent driving occasioning in grievous bodily harm.
Defence counsel Simon Priestly told the court Hayes believed Sophie’s restraints were properly secured, but the straps did not hold the infant in the seat.
“The mother … thought she had restrained her,” he said.
“[Hayes] believed she strapped her child in the capsule.
“It really is a mystery.”
Both prosecution and defence agreed Hayes had asked Ms Doyle if the baby had been secured before driving.
Crown prosecutor Simon Apps said the 48-year-old’s negligent act was choosing to drive with unroadworthy tyres.
“It’s not momentary inattention – she knew she was driving on bald tyres,” Mr Apps said.
But Mr Priestly said it was a culmination of factors that contributed to the crash, including recent rain that morning.
“Experts said it was a perfect storm of events – tyres, weather and the road,” he said.
“It was a terrible accident with terrible consequences caused by a degree of negligence … for a woman whose life is surrounded by tragedy.”
He told the court Hayes had been diagnosed with a nerve condition and was suffering from brain tumours.
“She’s been told she has several years to live,” Mr Priestly said.
The court also heard from a mental health report that Hayes was suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“She is punishing herself emotionally,” the report read.
Hayes sobbed silently as Judge Stephen Hanley handed down his sentence, noting the impact of Sophie Haye’s death on the 48-year-old.
“She is overwhelmed by the loss of her granddaughter,” he said.
He sentenced her to a 12-month suspended sentence and disqualified her licence for two years.