Dubbo-born Jeremy Charles Stubbs, 26, was sentenced in Dubbo District Court yesterday for dangerous driving which caused the death of two passengers and left one injured.

Acting District Court Judge Sir Robert Woods told the court that when rescue workers arrived at the scene, the car was alight.

A 25-year-old passenger in the front seat, Craig Press, died on impact, while a 15-year-old girl seated in the back only suffered minor injuries from the crash, but died in the fire after Stubbs had left the scene.

Rescue workers described “hearing her cries as flames engulfed her”, Judge Woods said.

The third passenger, 19-year-old Daniel Press, managed to free himself from the car and seek help at a nearby property.

Stubbs was found some four hours later by State Emergency Service workers, lying in a foetal position in a paddock a considerable distance from the crash site.

The Holden station wagon he was driving broke in half when it crashed into a tree 40 kilometres northeast of Parkes on the Wellington Road on April 10 last year.

The only surviving passenger said Stubbs had been driving at 160 km/hr before the crash.

Outside the courthouse the grieving mother of Craig Press said the sentence was “not enough”.

“That’s two and a half years for a life,” Bev Press said.

“In a few years his family has something to look forward to. What have we got?”

“It’s something that you’ll never get over.

“We’ve only got a photo to remember him by,” she said as she held up a tattered photograph of Mr Press, taken two months before his death.

After 18 months of going through the court system, Ms Press said it was a relief to close that chapter with Stubbs being sentenced.

But she said every year she and her family had to go through six weeks of pain.

It begins on April 6 with a birthday before the anniversary of Mr Press’s death, and then his birthday shortly after.

Ms Press described her son as a man born and raised in Orange with “problems of his own”.

“We’ll never get over it,” she said.

Judge Woods sentenced Stubbs to six years in prison for each of the dangerous driving causing death indictments and gave him an 18-month fixed term of imprisonment for dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm.

The 18-month term was backdated to August 2 last year with the first six-year sentence beginning August 2 this year, with a non-parole period of four years and six months.

The second dangerous driving causing death sentence will begin on February 2, 2013, with a non-parole period of two years.

He was also sentenced to a nine-month fixed term of imprisonment for driving without ever holding a licence, beginning yesterday.

When handing down his sentence, Judge Woods noted the seriousness of this sort of offence.

“Driving causes more loss and death than anything else in our society today,” he said.

carly.dolan@ruralpress.com