by Luke Voogt
A Bell Post Hill man who crashed into a pregnant woman’s car killing her unborn baby could leave prison in four months following a resentencing.
Shane David Bausch, 58, in February pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving with illicit drugs in his system and failing to appear on bail.
County Court judge Wendy Wilmoth on 6 March sentenced him to three years’ jail with a non-parole period of two years.
But Court of Appeal judges David Ashley and Robert Osborn on Tuesday resentenced Bausch to two years and one month in jail with a non-parole period of 15 months.
During the resentencing Justices Ashley and Osborn declared Bausch had already served 340 days of his sentence, meaning he could be eligible for parole in four months.
On 26 March, 2016, Bausch drove through a give way sign crashing into pregnant woman Amanda Davies’ car on Midland Hwy near Bannockburn.
Ms Davies suffered a broken pelvis, rib and spinal fractures and lacerations to her liver, lungs and spleen.
An ambulance helicopter airlifted her to Royal Melbourne Hospital where she was placed in an induced coma.
Her unborn baby girl, later named Shiloh, was stillborn at 31 weeks following an emergency caesarean section.
Her other two children, in the backseat during the crash, were uninjured.
Preliminary testing found multiple drugs including methylamphetamine in Bausch’s blood, County Court heard in February.
His court absence on 29 October sparked a police manhunt resulting in a dramatic arrest at Bell Post Hill on 16 November.
During the arrest Bausch suffered bites from a police dog to his left forearm, later requiring plastic surgery, the Court of Appeal heard on Tuesday.
In resentencing Bausch Justices Ashley and Osborn found an acquired brain injury reduced his moral culpability and “suitability as a vehicle for general deterrence”.
“This is a case of disastrous misjudgement at an intersection rather than one of protracted dangerous driving,” they said in their ruling.
The court also found “it cannot be concluded beyond reasonable doubt” Bausch had disregarded a probable risk of drugs in his system.
Despite spending a “considerable” part of his adult life in jail, Bausch had avoided reoffending since his release from prison in 2010 to raise his younger children, the court found.
But Justices Ashley and Osborn almost doubled Bausch’s driving ban from four years to nine years, effective from Tuesday.
“Provided he does not drive again, the applicant has some real prospects of rehabilitation,” they said.
