Drink Driving Victim Impact Statement Example

This is a fictional example of a victim impact statement written by someone seriously injured in a crash caused by a drink driver. Every name, person and event is invented. It follows the ten sections used in the Justice Draft guided form.

In this example, Craig was driving home from work when a drunk driver crossed onto his side of the road. He survived with serious leg injuries that ended the working life he knew.

The exact charge varies between states. It might be called dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, drink driving causing bodily harm, or something similar. Whatever the charge is called, courts in every Australian state and territory accept victim impact statements in these cases.

If you were hurt in a crash and this feels close to home, take it slowly. You can stop and come back any time.

Victim Impact Statement of Craig Sutton

This is a fictional example created by Justice Draft. All names, people and events are invented.

How I felt at the time

I was driving home from a job on a Friday evening. I saw headlights come across onto my side of the road and there was no time to do anything. The two cars hit head on. My legs were pinned under the dash and I could not move. I could smell fuel and I was certain the car was going to catch fire. I was trapped for about forty minutes while firefighters cut me out, and I was awake for all of it. I kept thinking about Lisa and the kids, and whether I had said goodbye properly that morning. I have never been so frightened in my life.

Emotional wellbeing

I used to think of myself as a calm person. Since the crash I am jumpy, short tempered and tired all the time. Oncoming headlights at night put my heart in my throat. I see a psychologist and she is helping me work through the flashbacks, but they still come. The hardest part is the anger. The man who hit me chose to drink and chose to drive. Some days that knowledge sits on my chest like a weight. I snap at my kids over nothing and then feel ashamed. That is not the father I want to be.

Relationships

My wife Lisa became my carer overnight. For months she showered me, dressed me and drove me to every appointment, all while working and running the house. She has been incredible, and I hate that she had to be. It has changed us. We are getting some of the old us back, but slowly. My daughter Evie was scared of the frames on my legs and would not come near me in the hospital. That nearly broke me. My son Tom learned to ride his bike without training wheels while I was in rehab. I watched the video on a phone. I have drifted from my mates at the footy club because I cannot play and I got tired of watching from a plastic chair.

Physical health

The crash broke my right femur, shattered my left ankle and fractured four ribs. I have had five operations so far and there is at least one more to come. I spent almost three months in hospital and rehab, and I had to learn to walk again. There is permanent metal in both legs. I walk with a limp and I live with pain every day, worse in cold weather. I cannot kneel, squat or carry heavy loads. My surgeon has told me the ankle will likely need to be fused one day. I am 41 years old and I move like a much older man.

Financial impact

I am a carpenter and my body was my income. I could not work at all for fourteen months. I had to let my apprentice go, and that decision still eats at me because he lost his job over another man's choice. Income protection covered part of our mortgage but not all of it, and our savings are gone. Lisa has taken on extra shifts. We sold my work ute. I am back doing light jobs a few days a week, but I will never do the heavy work that paid best. There is an insurance claim under way. It is slow, and nothing about our future is certain.

Daily life and routine

Every day starts with pain and stiffness, and I plan my day around what my legs will allow. Stairs are slow. I cannot kick a footy with Tom or carry Evie on my shoulders. I used to fix everything around our house. Now I pay other people to do jobs I could once do in an afternoon. Driving takes real effort. I avoid driving at night, and on the highway I grip the wheel so hard my hands ache. Lisa does most of the long drives now.

Sense of safety

I was sober, rested and driving under the speed limit, and it still happened. That is the part I cannot make peace with. I used to trust the white line down the middle of the road. I do not any more. Every set of oncoming headlights is a question now. When Lisa and the kids are out in the car at night I watch the clock until they are home. The road used to be just a road. Now it is the place where my old life ended.

Spiritual and cultural wellbeing

I am not a religious man. My version of peace was being outdoors, being useful and being strong for the people around me. The crash took a lot of that. I have had to sit with the fact that one stranger's decision changed my whole life, and that no amount of doing the right thing protected me. I am still working out what I believe about that. It is the kind of question I never expected to be asking at my age.

Who I was before this happened

Before the crash I was the fittest I had been in years. I coached Tom's junior footy team. I built our back deck with my own hands. I was the bloke my family and my mates called when something needed lifting, fixing or building. I was the strong one. Now I need a hand getting out of a low chair. I am learning to be a different kind of strong, but I miss the man I was.

What I want the court or assessor to know

I am not writing this out of hatred. I am writing it because the man who hit me made choices that night. Every drink was a decision. Getting behind the wheel was a decision. I did not get to make any decisions at all.

He walked away from the crash with cuts and bruises. I will carry it in my body for the rest of my life, and my wife and kids will carry it with me.

I ask the court to treat this as seriously as it deserves. And I want anyone who ever hears about this case to think twice before driving after drinking. If that happens, some good will have come out of the worst night of my life.