A truck driver who killed a young woman after jumping a red light has been jailed for two and a half years.
David Grice, 60, ran over 26-year-old Danielle McGrath in Caringbah, Sydney on November 8.
Ms McGrath was killed instantly as she crossed the road at a busy intersection after the pedestrian light went green.
Minutes later her boyfriend Aaron Roberts, who was held up by traffic caused by her death, arrived to find her body under a sheet in the middle of the road and her handbag and belongs strewn across the ground.
Today Grice was sentenced to 31.5 months in jail with no parole for 18 months after pleading guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death.
Truck driver David Grice (pictured right), 60, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death last year and was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail
Ms McGrath was crossing the intersection of Port Hacking Road and the Kingsway in Caringbah, south of Sydney, at a green pedestrian light when she was hit by Grice, who had run a red light
Dashcam footage of the accident showed the moment Danielle was hit, followed by the repeated screams of Grice (pictured: the scene at Caringbah after the crash)
Judge Peter Maiden today told Sydney District Court how Ms McGrath was walking in the centre of the road when she was hit.
‘Shortly after this, the side of the truck at a point some distance behind the driver’s door came into contact with Ms McGrath. She was thrown to the ground and the truck proceeded to crush her,’ he said.
Ms McGrath’s family wept as the judge went on to describe how she was ‘concentrating’ but ‘not aware of the truck coming from her rear and left.’
Grice insisted he was concentrating at the but admitted not checking to his right, reported News.com.
He said: ‘I had just decided it was safe to continue and focused on cars coming towards me … I was conscious of that and focused on that.’
Judge Maiden praised the McGrath family’s dignity and said the pain of the loss of a young woman in the ‘prime of her life would never go away.’
As he left the court, Ms McGrath’s father Bill said: ‘We are just happy Danielle had her day in court.’
Mr Roberts previously told how he placed a diamond ring on his girlfriend’s finger at her funeral, two weeks after she died on her way to work.
Mr Roberts read his victim impact statement at a packed sentence hearing for truck driver David William Edward Grice, 60, who last year pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death.
‘I lost the brightest part of my day, my best friend and my future wife,’ an emotional Mr Roberts said in the NSW District Court last Thursday.
Aaron Roberts (left) revealed he was preparing to propose to his partner Danielle McGrath (right) before she was hit by a truck in November 2016 and killed
Mr Roberts knew Danielle had died when he saw her handbag strewn across the road
Her father, Bill McGrath, told the court his wife Helen had fallen to the ground when the couple were told what had happened to their daughter.
‘Life will go on but, without Danielle, it will never be the same,’ he said.
‘The world has lost a beautiful angel.’
Crown prosecutor Georgia Turner said the truck driver collided with Ms McGrath after running a red light at the intersection of Port Hacking Road and the Kingsway in Caringbah, in Sydney’s south.
Mr Roberts arrived at the scene to see his partner of almost six years covered by a sheet with her handbag and belongings strewn across the road.
Mr Roberts described Danielle as ‘the brightest part of my day, my best friend and my future wife’ in his victim impact statement
Mr Roberts was able to give Ms McGrath the engagement ring he had purchased for her, when he slid it on to her hand at her funeral
Ms McGrath’s body was so badly damaged in the crash that only her left hand was left visible when her family came to view her body. Pictured: the scene in Caringbah in 2016
He said he would never forget the face of the police officer who confirmed to him it was Ms McGrath.
Dashcam footage of the accident was played to the court, where a loud thud was heard as Danielle was hit, followed by the driver’s screams as he realised what had happened, 7 News reported.
Danielle’s body was so badly damaged in the crash that only her left hand was left visible when her family came to view her body.
Grice told the court he did not see the red arrow, and he was devastated to know he was responsible for the young woman’s death.
‘I am grieved to the depths of my being… I can’t change it & I am so terribly, terribly sorry,’ Grice told the court, 9 News reported.
Ms McGrath’s father told the court his life would never be the same after losing ‘a beautiful angel’. Pictured: Ms McGrath and her boyfriend
Crown prosecutor Georgia Turner said the truck driver collided with Ms McGrath after running a red light at the intersection