"It was like something from a horror movie," the victim's sister said in an emotional impact statement to the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The offender, Braydon Russell O'Leary, 32, has narrowly avoided jail and was sentenced to a 24-month intensive correction order with 240 hours of community service.

O'Leary, originally from Cowra, NSW, had previously pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing grievous bodily harm.

He and two work friends had spent more than eight hours at two pubs before the single-vehicle crash on Canberra Avenue, near Nyrang Street, in Fyshwick, last year.

"I could hear my big brother screaming in pain, this memory alone haunts me," the victim's sister told the court on Wednesday.

"He still had parts of the tree the car had hit in his wounds."

She spoke to the court on behalf of her brother, who now struggles with severe headaches and is unable to concentrate for long periods.

The sister said the victim will never walk without a limp, will continue to suffer from headaches due to neck injuries, may have long-term brain damage, suffers random shooting pains and most likely will never be able to drive again.

She told the court her brother and O'Leary were work mates, and the offender only visited the victim in hospital once.

"He hasn't asked how he is doing," the sister stated.

"[O'Leary has shown] zero empathy or remorse for his actions.

"It has upset [the victim] greatly because he thought they were great friends."

O'Leary's lawyer, Michael Kukulies-Smith, said his client had taken "meaningful steps" to address his alcohol abuse since the crash.

Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker described her decision for O'Leary to serve his sentence in the community as "a difficult determination".

"No sentence that a court imposes can possibly redress the harm and the grief that has been suffered," she said.

Agreed facts state O'Leary and two colleagues finished work at midday on the day in question and went to two pubs where they drank an unknown number of alcoholic drinks.

The group left about 8.30pm that night in a Mazda 3 sedan. At one stage they stopped at a Fyshwick petrol station and O'Leary moved to the driver's seat before driving off.

Not long after this, after driving approximately 125 metres, O'Leary lost control of the car on Canberra Avenue and hit a tree.

The victim had to be "extricated" by ACT Fire and Rescue and taken to Canberra Hospital in a serious unstable condition.

He was diagnosed with fractures in four cervical vertebrae, two broken femurs and multiple breaks in both hands.

O'Leary recorded a blood alcohol concentration of 0.219, being more than four times the legal driving limit.