By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A drug-and-booze-addled Keysborough driver who crashed his car onto a tilt-tray of a tow-truck and seriously injured two men has been jailed for up to four years.
Brandon Ng, now 40 years old, turned the corner of Kingston Road and Clayton Road, Clayton South about 9.20am on 28 May, 2018, the Victorian County Court has heard.
He travelled 80 metres before crashing into the tray-truck, parked in the left lane with its hazard lights on.
Ng’s vehicle ascended the tilted tray, rebounded off the top, and bounced and rolled down the tray onto the road.
Four men at the time unloading a heavy industrial work-bench were knocked off the tray.
Two of the workers were taken to The Alfred hospital with serious injuries.
At the time, Ng was impaired by alcohol, meth, cocaine, Valium and two other pharmaceutical sedatives.
In sentencing on 6 July, Judge Richard Smith said Ng was thus incapable of properly controlling a motor vehicle – an act of “gross irresponsibility” at a time of day when roads were “relatively busy”.
The judge noted “with some surprise” that at the time Ng had drink-driving, disqualified driving, criminal damage and drug possession charges from 2017 hanging over his head.
His criminal record including heroin trafficking, assaulting police and multiple acts of irresponsible driving.
One of his victims suffered extensive injuries, including bleeding on the brain, a fractured skull, back, legs and feet, a punctured lung and tears to his bowel and spleen.
He underwent surgery and intensive-care for several days, and remained in hospital for three months.
The “terrible injuries” had a “devastating” impact on the victim and wife and were likely to endure for the rest of his life, Judge Smith said.
A former state 10-pin bowling champion, he has ceased the sport. He receives ongoing rehab and therapy several days a week, and suffers constant frustration, stress and pain. The man was unlikely to reclaim a drivers licence or his license to drive heavy vehicles.
The second victim’s broken leg was affixed with a rod and nails for 15 months.
Judge Smith noted the man recently regained his ability to walk without assistance but suffers daily.
He is also unable to drive and continues a regime of exercise-based rehab.
Judge Smith took into account Ng’s dysfunctional early childhood, guilty plea and the burdens of imprisonment during Covid-19.
At the time of the crash, Ng’s relationship with his partner had broken down, he was drinking excessively, effectively stopped working as a baker and was in chronic unmanaged depression and anxiety, Judge Smith noted.
That year, Ng was admitted to hospital in a critical condition with illnesses including renal and liver failure, pneumonia and hepatitis C.
He had since recovered, resumed full-time work at his aunt’s bakery and fulfilled a 12-month community corrections order for the 2017 offences.
Ng was jailed for up to four years, with a minimum non-parole period of two-and-a-half years.
He was disqualified from driving for three-and-a-half years.
Judge Smith said Ng was “fortunate” to have been charged with two counts of dangerous driving causing serious injury, which carry maximum jail terms of five years.
He could have faced the more serious charges of reckless driving causing serious injury or negligently causing serious injury. The maximum jail terms are respectively 15 years and 10 years.
