Jake Barrett sentenced to prison after fatal Barton Highway crash

"You must serve your debt to the community," Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson said on Friday.

The crash, which occurred two years ago to the day, also left a third man trapped in his car and severely injured.

"I'm so sorry that I'm the reason that this has happened," Jake Barrett, 29, told officers after killing Alistair Urquhart in Canberra's north in September 2021.

Barrett sat up straight and bowed his head through the majority of his ACT Supreme Court sentencing but stood to receive his four-year jail sentence, to be suspended after 20 months.

The man hugged his crying wife and handed over personal belongings before being taken into custody.

"As best as any human being can, I understand the depth of the grief and despair of the loss of a brother and the loss of a family member," Justice Loukas-Karlsson said.

"The one thing I cannot do, and I wish courts could do, is bring back your brother."

A sentence "cannot hope to reflect the value of human life", the judge said.

Barrett previously pleaded guilty to charges of culpable driving causing death and grievous bodily harm.

The offender was heading north on the Barton Highway, driving an unfamiliar work truck, on September 15, 2021, when he claims an alarm went off.

He looked down for between eight and 11 seconds to figure out what the issue was and drove through a red light at the Gungahlin Drive intersection, hitting Mr Urquhart's Ford Falcon.

Barrett's 22.5-tonne truck was travelling about 79kmh at the point of impact.

The Falcon was struck into a Toyota Landcruiser and Mr Urquhart, 45, was propelled onto a median strip about 30 metres away.

The Landcruiser's driver, who needed to be cut from his vehicle after the incident left him trapped, was taken to Canberra Hospital with serious injuries.

Justice Loukas-Karlsson said Barrett, driving a heavy truck, owed a heightened level of care and attention to keep other road users safe.

While the judge ruled the man's inattention was not "fleeting", she did "not find it rises to a total abandonment of responsibility".

Justice Loukas-Karlsson read parts of "eloquent and dignified" victim impact statements on Friday.

"The loss of my little brother Alistair has left me devastated," Mr Urquhart's sister wrote in her statement.

The woman wrote about her interaction with Barrett in court on a previous occasion, when she said the offender apologised.

"He and I have made our peace," she said.

"I do not believe the offender set out to injure and kill people that day."

The judge also read parts a victim impact statement from the man who was left with serious injuries, including up to 30 fractures.

"I don't believe Mr Barrett acted with any malice or intent to hurt me," the victim said.

"He will carry the effects of this for a lifetime as well."

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In a letter to the court, Barrett's wife said her husband had become "a ghost of himself" since the accident and that the man had not slept properly in two years.

"We are looked at as a criminal family in the community," the woman wrote.

The court accepted the offender's "genuine remorse and contrition".

After "a great deal of anxious consideration", Justice Loukas-Karlsson said she could not let the offender serve his sentence wholly in the community.

"An innocent person waiting at the lights has died and another innocent person has had his life permanently changed," she said.

Barrett will be released in May 2025, when he will enter into a three-year good behaviour order.

"No amount of imprisonment can turn the clock back to how things might have been," the judge said.

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