Police v Leonard [2005] NSWLC 3

Local Court of New South Wales

CITATION: Police v Leonard [2005] NSWLC 3 JURISDICTION: Criminal PARTIES: Police Genevieve Anne Leonard FILE NUMBER: PLACE OF HEARING: Grafton Local Court DATE OF DECISION: 02/22/2005 MAGISTRATE: Magistrate C Bone CATCHWORDS: drive negligently - grievous bodily harm - death LEGISLATION CITED: Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act 1999 s 42 (1) R v Baker NSWCCA unreported 7 Feb 1985 CASES CITED: Clout v Hutchinson 1950 51 SR (NSW) 32 Musgrove v Howard 78 NSWWN 88 REPRESENTATION: Sgt S Gerrish, Police Prosecutor Mr R P O'Connor Solicitor for the Accused ORDERS: I find the offence proved

Reasons for Decision

1 It is alleged against Genevieve Anne Leonard that at Woodburn on 4th July, 2003, she (a) drove negligently, (b) drove negligently and, as a result, grievous bodily harm was caused to Sarah Cooper and (c) drove negligently and, as a result, the death was caused of Joshua Paul Covell. The accused has pleaded not guilty. The statements of all police witnesses were admitted into evidence without objection together with a transcript of an interview between the prosecutor and the accused. The accused did not give evidence or call any witnesses.

The Facts 2 The facts are not in dispute and are as follows. At about 4pm on Friday, 4th July, 2003, the accused was travelling alone in a white Ford Festiva motor sedan. She was driving south on the Pacific Highway and was a short distance south of Woodburn. The highway at that point is in rural surroundings and is governed by a 100km/hr speed limit. The accused was travelling at about 100km/hr. She came to a section of highway which had two south bound lanes. There was a single north bound lane and the north bound lane and the two south bound lanes were separated by unbroken double centre lines. The accused was travelling in the left hand lane (i.e. the lane closest to the side of the highway). Her vehicle, for no apparent reason, then turned sharply to the right, crossed the road and collided with a north bound vehicle. Joshua Covell, the driver of the north bound vehicle, died as a result of the collision and Sarah Cooper, a passenger in the north bound vehicle, sustained grievous bodily harm. 3 Karen Roots was driving south along the highway at the time of the collision. She was about 100 metres behind the accused's vehicle. Her evidence was as follows: I noticed the white car in front of me was still the same distance in front and doing about the same speed. It was also in the left lane. All of a sudden the car looked as though it was trying to do a right hand u-turn. The car turned sharply to the right and onto the wrong side of the road .