A teenager with "destructive power" has dodged jail time after crashing an unregistered car he drove "like a missile", leaving a classmate trapped in the wreckage for 90 minutes with a fractured spine and skull.
Michael Christopher Donlan, 19, received a 15-month intensive correction order, $1602 in fines and a six-month driving disqualification when he recently fronted the ACT Magistrates Court for sentence.
The Hawker man, also known as Michael Spong, had previously pleaded guilty to three charges that included culpable driving causing grievous bodily harm.
He committed the offences on February 17 last year, when he rocketed along Belconnen Way at speeds of up to 180km/h, with his classmate in the front passenger seat, en route to the Canberra Institute of Technology.
Just before 1pm, he overtook another driver who later told police the engine of Donlan's white Toyota Corolla was "screaming" as it passed him "like a missile".
Donlan ultimately lost control at about 152km/h as he tried to avoid another car, rotating his vehicle 180 degrees and sending it backwards off the side of the road.
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"The car hit a timber fence and destroyed a section of it," magistrate James Stewart said in sentencing.
"The victim's door area impacted with a tree and the car overturned onto its roof and collided with a road sign prior coming to rest.
"Significant structural damage was caused to the car's passenger side area where the victim was.
"He was badly injured and it took about 90 minutes for rescue authorities to extricate him from the wreck."
The victim was later found to have suffered a raft of fractures, including to his spine and skull, as well as further injuries that included lacerations to his neck and scalp.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, he told what Mr Stewart described as "a significant story of physical and psychological harm, loss, fear, sadness, residual pain, discomfort and the embarrassment of a possibly permanent limp".
"It is a story that young drivers should be able to read and serves as a stark reminder of the destructive power held in a driver's right foot," the magistrate said.
Despite this, Mr Stewart said, the victim was not bitter and did not seek that Donlan be punished in any particular way.
Defence barrister Kieran Ginges urged Mr Stewart not to lock Donlan up, arguing that the teenager "would not tolerate or endure the rigour of the custodial environment with any great success".
The magistrate ultimately agreed with that assessment, describing Donlan in the process as "a troubled young man" who felt "deep and genuine remorse" for his offending.
He accordingly imposed the intensive correction order, which is a sentence of imprisonment that allows the recipient to serve their time in the community rather than behind bars.
