A man who caused a head-on crash that claimed the life of a 58-year-old woman had six months earlier been forced to have a breath-testing interlock mechanism installed in his ute and was drug-affected at the time of the horror smash.
Andrew Matijevic, 28, will be sentenced in Newcastle District Court later this year, guilty of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death.
According to an agreed statement of facts tendered to the court, a witness saw Matijevic drive onto the wrong side of the road and have a near-miss with another vehicle at Charlestown only minutes before the fatal collision at Park Avenue, Kotara, on the morning of April 12 last year.
Matijevic was travelling north near the intersection of Bender Parade about 9.30am when he crossed to into the south-bound lane and collided with a Toyota Camry.
Multiple witnesses reported seeing Matijevic unsteady on his feet and slurring his speech after the crash and one police officer who came to the scene believed he was drug-affected.
Matijevic told police at the scene, and in a subsequent interview, he had smoked two "cones" of cannabis the evening before the incident, but he later told police he had taken benzodiazepine.
The 58-year-old woman was taken to John Hunter Hospital with multiple injuries to her chest and limbs, but died that afternoon.
Matijevic suffered minor injuries. Blood analysis revealed several substances in his system.
A forensic pharmacologist opined that he was particularly under the influence of etizolam and flubromazolam at the time of the crash and "his driving would be very substantially impaired".
Those substances are found in counterfeit benzodiazepine tablets.
In court on Thursday, Judge Roy Ellis set Matijevic's sentencing date for May 7.
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