A mother who drunkenly drove into her daughter and dragged her 150 metres down their street in Sydney's south has "no desire to drive" after she was spared jail time.
Dale Palmer was more than three times over the legal drink-driving limit when she trapped her 27-year-old daughter who was heard screaming "help help stop".
The 59-year-old pleaded guilty to aggravated dangerous driving occasioning actual bodily harm after Keely Palmer was pulled down a Caringbah South street on May 2, 2021.
She was sentenced to 21 months' imprisonment to be served in the community by way of intensive corrections order and is disqualified from driving for two years.
"There's no doubt the events (that night) will affect all involved for a very long time," magistrate Brett Thomas said in the Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday.
"Alcohol overwhelmed any ability she had to realise ... what she was doing and the danger she posed to her daughter who attempted albeit unsuccessfully to stop her driving in the first place."
The magistrate took into account Palmer's 42-year driving record which was "very good" and said she was unlikely to reoffend.
A traffic offenders course coordinator said Palmer had shared her experience with the other attendees despite becoming upset, and this had a profound effect on them.
Mr Thomas commended Palmer for helping share insight into the consequences of drink driving.
And while he agreed there had been intense media scrutiny of the incident he said it was unsurprising given the nature of what occurred.
Palmer was hosting a party and had been drinking wine from Saturday afternoon onwards before her daughters arrived home and became angry, according to court documents.
"They don't like me drinking wine and they get narky at me," she later told police.
In the early hours of Sunday morning she wanted to drive to the end of the street to "gather her thoughts," while Keely stood in front of her car and called police.
A recording catches the words "I need to leave, I need to leave," before screaming erupts as the younger woman gets caught in the passenger side front axle.
Neighbours heard her shout: "Dad help, stop the car." Her father Warren Palmer chased after the car, yelling: "Put the f***ing handbrake on. Put the handbrake on. Stop the car."
Multiple people helped lift the vehicle off the injured woman.
One witness says there was blood everywhere, and the victim's right arm looked like it had been dragged along the road, with skin missing.
Palmer standing on the side of the road was heard by three men screaming: "Why'd you do this to me?"
Her daughter replied: "Get this woman away from me."
Keely was taken to hospital and treated for complex fractures, large skin defects, abrasions to her thigh and hip area, and burns among other injuries.
The court was told she had forgiven her mother.
Palmer in her own letter to the court said she was "deeply sorry to my daughter Keely", her family, community and first responders that evening.
"I committed a great wrong and I feel real shame for that criminal wrongdoing."
Prosecutor Alexander Poulos submitted the court needed to send a strong message to the community and that Palmer should be disqualified from driving for the mandatory three-year period.
But her defence lawyer Arjun Chhabra asked this be reduced, saying his client did not have a car at her disposal and "no desire to drive".
Palmer has since abstained from alcohol, attended alcoholics anonymous meetings and sought treatment from a trauma psychologist, the court was told.
She will be legally allowed to drive again from May 2023.
Australian Associated Press
