QUEENSLAND roads have become "killing fields" as reckless and irresponsible drivers continue to put the lives of innocent road users at risk, a District Court judge has said.
On Friday, January 29, Judge Walter Tutt sentenced Redland Bay man Ryan David Spencer Gill to five years in prison for driving at speeds of up to 180km/h in a 60km/h zone, moments before he lost control of his car in 2008.
He crashed and seriously injured two of his teenage passengers.
Gill, 21, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving while affected by an intoxicating substance and excessively speeding.
The court was told Gill had a blood alcohol level of 0.083 per cent - almost twice the legal limit for open licence holders - as well as the party drug ecstacy in his system.
He had also been disqualified from driving, after losing his P-plate licence for previous speeding and drink driving offences.
Gill, a junior football coach and concreter, sobbed as Mr Tutt told him he had jeopardised the lives of others.
"Because of grossly irresponsible drivers such as you, our roads have become the killing fields of young people and other innocent road users," Mr Tutt told Gill.
"Our community demands courts impose condign punishments on offenders in the hope it acts as some deterrent."
The court was told Gill, then 19, loaded three teenage friends in his Honda Civic and sped along Bunker Road, in Victoria Point about 5am on September 12, 2008.
One of his passengers claimed the speed indicated by car's speedometer was 180km/h shortly before Gill lost control on a bend and hit a parked vehicle.
The car spun around and hit another stationary car.
Back seat passengers Nicholas Sean O'Brien and Kane Matthew Rolton had to be cut out of the wreckage.
O'Brien was in hospital for 45 days with backbone fractures, a lacerated spleen, a fractured pelvis and needed to be fed through a tube as he recovered from abdominal injuries, Crown prosecutor Sandra Cupina said.
Rolton was left with lacerations and a fractured femur which required surgery.
A front seat passenger was also left with minor injuries. Gill was not injured.
Ms Cupina said Gill told police he thought he was going about 150km/h before the crash, but his car's speedometer was wrong by about 10-15kmh so he could have been going as fast as 165km/h.
Defence barrister Jim Veivers said both victims had fully recovered from their injuries.
He said both O'Brien and Rolton had forgiven Gill, but his client's father was not in court as "he can't face what his son has done".
Mr Veivers said Gill, who had since completed defensive driving programs, "went off the rails" at the time of the crash as his mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
"He knows he is going to go to jail today," he said.
Judge Tutt ordered Gill be eligible for parole release after he served 18 months behind bars.
He also disqualified him from driving for five years.
Gill's mother, sister and friends, sitting the public gallery, cried as Gill was led from the court.
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