The family of a woman who was hit and killed by a bus driver while on a pedestrian crossing on the Central Coast say they are "disgusted" the 65-year-old avoided jail and are calling for harsher sentences for those convicted of dangerous driving causing death.
Mother-of-two Leigh Black, 46, had been walking on a pedestrian crossing for four seconds when a Red bus service struck her outside Bateau Bay Square shopping centre on the morning of August 19, 2022.
The experienced bus driver, 65-year-old Craig Hollan Marjoram, was looking for pedestrians crossing from the other side of the road when he turned right and ran over the mother-of-two.
Mrs Black was described by her family as someone who wore her heart on her sleeve, was determined, charismatic and special and who loved her children.
Marjoram initially pleaded not guilty and had been expected to face a trial, but last week pleaded guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death.
After his sentence remarks, Judge David Wilson offered his condolences to Mrs Black's family, telling them: "If I were you, I'd probably consider the sentence to be light and inadequate but there is no sentence I can give him according to law which in my view can be any more severe."
And now Mrs Black's family have spoken out from their home in the UK, urging prosecutors to appeal against the inadequacy of the sentence and calling for mandatory sentencing for those convicted of dangerous driving occasioning death.
"We have officially asked for a judicial review in the hope of getting a more suitable, tangible sentence other than him losing his license for three years," Mrs Black's father, Clifford Wakelin, who watched proceedings online from the UK, told the Newcastle Herald.
"I think a mandatory jail sentence should be included for all killings by dangerous drivers. "Even the judge thought it too light and could not impose anything harsher even though he did not plead guilty for 18 months after the event."
Clifford Wakelin said his daughter's death and the delay in the driver admitting his guilt had had a deleterious effect on his family's mental health.
"Initially we felt disbelief, then anger at him, then at her and then wanting to swap places," Mr Wakelin said. "He has taken away one third of my being on this Earth."
Mrs Black's brother Dominik Wakelin read a victim impact statement via video link last week and said his sister died in horrific and undignified circumstances, alone without her loved ones nearby.
"I cannot begin to imagine those final moments but what I do know is those last thoughts would have been of her children and the joy they brought to her life," Dominik Wakelin said. "I lie awake at night reliving the incident in absolute graphic detail. Every time I see a bus I wince."
