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Eight months pregnant and with her two young children in the back of the car, Rebecca Diane Weir was in the middle of a driving lesson with her partner when he became embroiled in an argument with a fellow road user.
Weir, who was 27 when the incident unfolded in August 2023, was driving along Stirling Highway in Nedlands in a Hyundai hatchback on her L plates when her partner, Geoff Palmer, stuck his finger up at another driver.
Palmer exited the vehicle and got into an altercation with a passenger from a vehicle in front that was filmed by members of the public.
During Weir’s sentencing on Tuesday, the District Court of WA heard another driver exited his vehicle to intervene in the melee but, as he crossed in front of Weir’s, she put her foot on the accelerator and pinned him to the car in front for a total of eight seconds.
The court was told the force of the car crushed the man’s legs, breaking one of them so severely that he required surgery and 25 days in hospital.
Weir eventually reversed the car, waited for Palmer to get back in and took off, leaving the injured man to be assisted by others nearby.
She was later arrested at Kings Park, where she told officers that it was an accident, and she had “panicked” and taken her foot off the brake by mistake.
Weir later told police she just wanted to “get out of there” and that she released her foot off the brake and the car moved forward.
Palmer was charged with assault, found guilty and fined $2000, while Weir was charged with failing to stop and render assistance, aggravated grievous bodily harm and failing to report an incident to police. She pleaded guilty to all charges.
On Tuesday, the court was told Weir suffered from a mild intellectual disability, had a functional neurological disorder and had been the victim of significant childhood trauma including abuse.
But prosecutors argued she should be jailed because she did not immediately reverse and chose instead to drive away, classifying her offending at the “high end of seriousness”.
“There was no justification for what you did,” Judge Wendy Hughes told Weir, adding that her offending was out of character for someone with no criminal history.
She then jailed Weir – who is due to give birth again in June – for a total of 20 months in prison, making her eligible for parole before adding that she was giving Weir a “lenient” sentence because of her personal circumstances.
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