Kirsty Batson pleaded guilty to driving without due care causing grievous bodily harm and one count of not meeting the conditions of her license.
The 24-year-old was behind the wheel of a Mazda sedan when she crossed double lines on Mundoolun Road in Mundoolun, Logan, slamming head-on into a minibus in August last year.
The court heard Batson was driving on little sleep. The night before the crash she was at a Surfers Paradise nightclub with friends, seen leaving on CCTV cameras at 1:30am.
She then started her shift with a local horse trainer at 4:30am and when she finished at 9am jumped straight in the car to drive to her mum’s at Cedar Vale, but she didn’t make it.
Twenty-two people were on board the minibus when it was hit, they were returning from a hot air balloon trip in the Scenic Rim.
Seventeen of the passengers were injured, including children, and driver William Green was trapped for over an hour before he was airlifted to hospital with critical injuries.
The court heard how he feared he would die.
Out the front of the Beaudesert Magistrates Court after the sentence he told 9News: “memories of the incident still come back to me, obviously it was quite horrendous.”
“Still seeing all the medical professionals, doctors, and they’re looking after me very very well.”
Batson also had to be cut from her car and airlifted to hospital. She spent 39 days at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, 12 of those in a coma.
Magistrate Tracy Mossop told Batson she was the author of her own tragedy, handing her an 18-month suspended sentence and disqualifying her from driving for 15 months. She was ordered to pay her victim $4000 in compensation.
Batson told 9News she is suffering and continually getting help.
“I do apologize for those that are injured, I don’t know what happened but obviously based on the evidence I did fatigue and I do apologize for that and I live with that drama every day.”
In court, the 24-year-old’s shocking driving history was also laid bare. In 2016, she was caught speeding more than a dozen times, 11 of those in one five-day period.