A Kambah couple who suffered devastating injuries in a fatal crash minutes from their home had their lives "turned upside down" in an instant, a family member says.
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The man, 66, and woman, 64, are still in hospital after driver Tim Smith-Brown allegedly ran a red light and smashed into their car and one other at a Drakeford Drive intersection on the evening of September 4.
Police said Mr Smith-Brown sped off when they tried to pull him over and they called off a pursuit not long before the collision.
The Oxley man, 24, died and his pregnant girlfriend Felicity Jessop was also injured in the crash. Ms Jessop gave birth to the pair's son, whom she named Tim, in hospital a few hours later.
A family member of the injured Kambah couple, who wanted to protect their identity, said they were driving home from a relative's funeral in Leeton with their two granddaughters when the cars collided.
They only had to turn two more street corners and they would have been home.
Instead, the couple faced a long and painful road to recovery after they were rushed to Canberra Hospital with shattered bones, pierced lungs, cuts and bruises.
"It's tough, but what I'm going through doesn't compare to what they're going through," the family member said.
The man's spine, clavicle and ankle were severely fractured and his ribs, sternum and pelvis were smashed on impact.
He had to have breathing tubes inserted as one of his lungs collapsed, and he was heavily sedated until last Thursday.
The man had back surgery to help repair the clean break to his seventh vertebra this week and was expected to remain in the intensive care unit for some time.
His wife sustained fractures to her back, ribs, sternum and ankles, as well as a collapsed lung.
Their 16-year-old granddaughter had a snapped clavicle and fractured sternum and was released from hospital last week.
The couple's eldest granddaughter, 18, escaped with cuts to her face, but had been conscious during the crash and was traumatised by memories of the impact.
The family member said the impact of the crash on the pair and their family was "hard to quantify in words".
"Particularly with them at that particular time and where they were with their work and lives and looking to work a bit less. It's definitely turned their lives upside down.
"They were still actively working and they won't be able to work again."
The family member did not want to comment on the circumstances surrounding the crash.
"It's not the best but that's not my concern at the moment; my concern is making sure they're OK and recovering and that will take a long time."
Mr Smith-Brown, who was driving an unregistered car unlicensed at the time of the crash, was farewelled at a graveside funeral at Queanbeyan on Tuesday.
His mother Joanne Smith said she "didn't know what he was thinking" that night and he would have been "so shattered" he hurt the couple.
It wasn't the first time he allegedly fled police, with court documents revealing he was awaiting sentence for almost running down a police officer when he sped off during a traffic stop last year.
ACT Policing has launched two internal investigations into the circumstances surrounding the crash.
The matter has been referred to the coroner.
