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Our dedicated team have acted in many dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm cases and have years of experience in defending these charges and having our clients found not guilty.
We are also well-versed in sentencing proceedings and have had numerous clients avoid gaol.
Contact us now to speak to our accredited specialist criminal and traffic lawyer today.
Dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm is a person driving dangerously who is involved in an impact, and that impact causes really serious harm to another. It is contained in Section 52A of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW).
This is one of the more serious driving offences in NSW.
This is a Table 1 offence under the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW). As such, it is finalised in the Local Court unless you or the prosecution elect to deal with it in the District Court.
You can beat a Dangerous Driving Occasioning Grievous Bodily Harm charge by ensuring the prosecution cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt:
If any of these elements are not made out, then you can be found ‘not guilty’.
Secondly, you can rely on one of the defences.
In addition to the above elements, the prosecution must also prove that a circumstance of aggravation existed. This means that they must prove you either:
If the prosecution cannot prove any of the above elements, you will be found ‘not guilty’ of the offence.
We have a dedicated team of specialist dangerous driving causing gbh lawyers and experts who have years of experience in fighting these charges.
Contact us now to see how we can best defend you.
You can be found ‘not guilty’ to this offence if one of the following defences to aggravated dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm exist:
Our dangerous driving lawyers have helped countless clients defend these charges over the years.
Our traffic sentencing guide will provide some general assistance if you are pleading guilty to a traffic charge or infringement. You should consult one of our specialist traffic solicitors for specific advice for your case.
Contact us now to speak to our friendly team.
The maximum penalty for Dangerous Driving occasioning Grievous Bodily Harm is 7 years imprisonment if your case is heard in the District Court.
The maximum penalty for ‘Aggravated Dangerous Driving Occasioning Grievous Bodily Harm’ is 11 years imprisonment if your case is heard in the District Court.
Guideline judgement
When imposing a Dangerous Driving occasioning grievous bodily harm sentence, the Court must bear in mind the matters which were set out in the guideline judgement of R v Whyte [2002] NSWCCA.
The guideline held that in an ordinary case, a court must impose a term of full-time imprisonment unless the offender has a low level of criminal responsibility for the accident such as momentary inattention or misjudgement.
The following characteristics make up the typical offender in an ordinary case:
Further, the Court should impose a penalty of at least 2 years imprisonment for this charge where the offender’s criminal responsibility is high.
The circumstances which can increase your criminal responsibility include:
Below are options available to a Judge in sentencing for dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm:
See below for likely penalties.
The statistics since 2018 paint a bleak picture. 100% of offenders were sentenced to some form of imprisonment when their cases were heard in the District Court. 57% of offenders were sentenced to full-time jail.
The statistics for this offence are not unusual, given the guideline judgement. That is why you need to engage Australia’s best dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm lawyers.
The definition of grievous bodily harm is any permanent or serious disfiguring of a person. However, the injury does not need to be permanent or life threatening. Each case will always be a question of fact and degree.
The decision of R v Swan [2016] NSWCCA clarified that what is required is not just serious bodily injury, but really serious bodily injury and that only the injury itself and its direct physical effects, not its personal, social and economic consequences, can be taken into account in deciding whether an injury amounts to really serious bodily injury.
See our page on grievous bodily harm for more detail.
The Court will consider your driving as a whole in order to determine whether your driving was dangerous. This includes your control of the vehicle, the road you were travelling on and the number of other persons put at risk.
For example, travelling 30km/hr over the speed limit may not be regarded as dangerous on a wide straight road, where the weather was clear and there were no other persons put at risk. However, travelling 30km/hr over the speed limit may be seen as dangerous if the road was winding with sharp bends, you were driving at night with limited street lighting and there were many other persons put at risk.
To be found guilty for Dangerous Driving, the police must prove that you must ‘so seriously’ failed to properly control and manage the vehicle, that it created a ‘real danger’ of harm to other persons, ‘far exceeding’ that which would arise from the normal use of a motor vehicle.
Negligent driving on the other hand requires the prosecution to prove that you failed to take proper care. This is obviously a much lower standard than that for dangerous driving.
