By Brendan Rees
A drug-affected P-plater from Warneet who lost control of his car and killed a motorcyclist has been jailed for eight years.
Kaiden Staggard, 23, pleaded guilty to one charge of culpable driving causing death during a Victorian County Court sitting on 1 October.
In his sentencing remarks Judge Paul Lacava said Staggard was under the influence of ice “to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of the motor vehicle”.
The court heard Staggard had been seen driving erratically in the moments before the crash which killed a 62-year-old man who was visiting from Tasmania on the afternoon of 25 February, 2019.
Staggard, then 22, had been driving home from work when he lost control of his Holden utility on a sweeping right hand bend on Tyabb-Tooradin Road in Somerville on the Mornington Peninsula about 4.20pm, the court was told.
“You then oversteered your vehicle, causing it to yaw in an anti-clockwise direction and onto the wrong side of the roadway and into the path of a motorcycle,” Judge Lacava said.
The collision caused severe injuries to the motorcyclist who died at the scene.
Staggard, a concreter with no prior criminal history, was taken to the Frankston Hospital where a blood sample was taken which indicated a methamphetamine level of 0.12mg per litres of blood.
After the crash he admitted to police he had used ice in the days before the crash and ought to have known that he should not have been driving while drug-affected, the court heard.
Judge Lacava told Staggard that family and friends of the victim had “suffered a profound sense of needless loss all at your hands.”
“The life of a decent hardworking man with a loving partner and family who was admired and loved by all has been lost,” Judge Lacava said.
The court was also told the victim’s partner had witnessed the collision as she drove behind his motorcycle, which Judge Lacava acknowledged “must have been a very traumatic experience”, with her partner’s passing having turned her life “virtually upside down”.
The court heard Staggard dropped out of school in Year 8 and began a carpentry apprenticeship which he did not finish.
He began drinking alcohol and using cannabis at just 13 years before turning to ice at 17, which he used heavily at 18 after his parents split.
He was later diagnosed as a schizophrenic and had been placed on community treatment orders for his condition.
The court heard Staggard was cooperative and engaging in his treatment and had “showed constant improvement”.
Judge Lacava told Staggard “by your criminal conduct a decent life was lost” and “the need for general deterrence” was to be reflected in his sentence.
Judge Lacava accepted Staggard’s remorse, his early plea of guilt, good employment history, and that his prospects of rehabilitation were “reasonable”.
“You have insight into what steps need to be taken to ensure you don’t offend again,” he said.
In addition to his jail sentence, Staggard was disqualified from obtaining a driver licence for six years.
