Prosecutors have successfully appealed a decision not to convict a woman who crashed her car into a group of cyclists while she was dazzled by the sun.
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At about 7.13am on April 15, 2015, Spozmai Nozhat drove her Mazda into two of the riders as they were all travelling east on Baldwin Drive in Giralang.
They suffered serious injuries that included cracked bones, as well as bruising and lacerations to internal organs. One, a woman, was thrown onto the car's bonnet and suffered a compression fracture to her vertebrae.
In August last year, Magistrate Robert Cook found Nozhat guilty of two counts of negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm but acquitted her of the offence, noting her unblemished criminal history as well as her high-regard in the community.
He imposed a 10-month good behaviour order, and Nozhat's licence was automatically disqualified for three months. The maximum penalty for the offence is a $15,000 fine and one year imprisonment.
The result prompted an appeal, as prosectors said the sentence did not reflect the seriousness of the offence. This week an ACT Supreme Court judge upheld the appeal and recorded a conviction.
Outside court, one of the cyclists who was seriously injured, John Coleman, said he was still disappointed by the result, which he believed failed "to send a clear strong message to Canberra drivers, that while driving a moment's inattention can have such drastic consequences on a group of cyclists."
The other seriously injured rider, Ingrid Kimber, said she was glad the long process had resulted in a conviction.
"My permanent spinal injury causes me problems daily, and although the sentence handed down today won't reduce my pain, it does help give me and the other victims closure."
When it was heard last year, the case considered the legal expectations on road users to adapt to conditions.
The evidence was that the driver, a disability support worker, drove for between six and nine seconds over 150 metres of straight road at 60 to 70km/h before crashing into the cyclists.
Nozhat said she had been dazzled by the sun and had not seen the cyclists until Ms Kimber flew into her windscreen.
It was negligent because she had failed to adapt to the conditions - the sun in her eyes - and failed to keep a look out for other road users, the prosecution argued.
Mr Cook agreed, pointing to the lack of evidence that the driver had taken any evasive action, such as slowing down or pulling down the visor.
"I'm either left with the conclusion .. that she either drove for six to nine seconds with the sun in her eyes without taking any evasive action at all, or at no time did she see the other road users ... which would have been clearly in her vision as she came round the corner on a left hand bend," Mr Cook said.
This week, the non-conviction order was challenged in the ACT Supreme Court as manifestly inadequate.
Prosecutor Rebecca Christensen told the court the sentence needed to send a strong message of deterrence to the general public. She pointed to the fact the incident involved "a group of bike riders, which is a common occurrence in Canberra."
Nozhat's defence barrister James Lawton argued that, while a relatively uncommon outcome, a non-conviction order in cases of negligent driving was not unheard of, and within the rules.
But, on Friday morning, Associate Justice David Robinson allowed the appeal, imposing a conviction and a 12-month good behaviour order backdated to August 15, 2016.
