The mother of the late Libby Ruge has called for change in language around fatal road crashes to better reflect the devastating impact of the crime.
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Julie Ruge said road crimes, including dangerous driving causing death, should be referred to as "vehicular homicide" rather than "accidents".
Libby, aged 19, was ploughed down by a car and killed when she was walking along a North Wollongong street with her two friends and boyfriend on a night out in November 2020.
"We find it really traumatising when people say our daughter was killed in an accident," Ms Ruge said.
"To us, our daughter wasn't in an accident. She was walking on a footpath, left her car at home, and did all the right things. A ridiculous act of stupidity is what killed her.
"Even for jurors, if its referred to in a court room as an accident, it downplays the situation for people like us who have lost our child."
Ms Ruge's calls for change come after the two men responsible for killing her daughter were sentenced at Wollongong District Court on Tuesday.
Jaskaran Singh, the driver of the car, was found guilty of dangerous driving causing Libby's death, as well as the grievous bodily harm of two of her friends, Tye West, 23, and Eva Harrison, 20, and failing to assist at the scene of the crash.
His front-seat passenger Arpan Sharma who pulled the handbrake, causing the vehicle to skid into Libby and her friends, had pleaded guilty to three dangerous driving charges.
The pair were sentenced to six and five years in jail respectively.
In a powerful victim impact statement, Ms Ruge told the court the prolonged grief she endures as a result of losing her daughter to the horrific crime.
"I wake up to the nightmare that my daughter was killed. I can't sleep, and if I do, I am haunted by nightmares," Ms Ruge said on Tuesday.
"When we arrived at the roundabout near Collegians, I could see it was no accident. We knew it was bad.
Since that night, I have been left an empty shell.
- Julie Ruge, at Wollongong District Court
"We were stopped by police as we watched paramedics working on Libby's broken body. We were watching her die.
"I wanted to donate her organs but was told as well as severe head injuries, Libby's organs were no longer viable as she had been gone for too long."
Libby's mothers are members of the Road Trauma Support Group which has been actively pushing to introduce legislation that changes language in fatal road crimes.
While the pain is too raw to be heavily involved in the advocacy, Ms Ruge hopes to push for reform in the future.
"Eventually we would like to do that ... but we're only at the beginning of our healing," she said.
For now, Ms Ruge is working to establish the Libby Ruge Foundation, a charity which aims to assist young people restore their smiles to honour her daughter who was an aspiring dentist.
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Grace Crivellaro
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
