For David Saegenschnitter, life changed in the blink of an eye on the evening of October 17, 2021.
Travelling home to Angaston through Mount Pleasant, his vehicle was hit by a grossly intoxicated, distracted, and enraged P-Plate driver.
While David was among those injured, tragically, his beloved wife Kaylene sustained life threatening injuries and subsequently passed away in hospital 10 days later, on her son Brad’s birthday.
Almost two years after that fateful evening, the offending driver was sentenced last week, bringing the heartbreaking story back into the public eye.
David has bravely spoken to The Leader about his family’s story, the faces behind the road toll. On Thursday, Lewis James Barton, 29, of Mount Pleasant, learnt the fate of his actions, sentenced to nine years’ jail for multiple offences, including one aggravated count of causing death by dangerous driving – an Adelaide District Court heard.
With a non-parole period of five years for his offences on the afternoon of October 17, 2021, and a suspended license for 15 years upon his release, the sentence, handed down by Judge Anthony Allen was received by Barton with little emotion.
Instead, the emotion was and still is felt by Angaston’s Saegenschnitter family, who continue to grapple with the consequences of Barton’s “cowardly” actions, as bluntly described by Judge Allen.
With three children and a doting husband, Kaylene Saegenschnitter’s life was cut short through no fault of her own, stolen by the actions of an intoxicated, emotional and self-proclaimed “drink driver.”
Recalling the night of the collision following, a court hearing on August 10, David told The Leader he was travelling through Mount Pleasant, heading towards Springton when the family car encountered Barton – driving out of control and on the wrong side of the road.
Narrowly avoiding a third vehicle, before colliding with a ute and making contact with their car – all occupants were injured, including Kaylene – whose condition was considered life threatening.
“Long story short, Kaylene was still breathing but she never regained any consciousness after that and passed away 10 days later,” David said.
“…she never really recovered from any of her injuries, they were pretty horrific.”
The tragedy occurred at a time when the couple was finally getting the chance to enjoy more time together, their three boys, Justin, Brad and Norm, were grown and David’s work schedule, primarily as a truck driver, wasn’t as frenetic as their early years together.
“We were married for nearly 34 years, and I was a truck driver for 30 of them – meaning she had to do a lot of stuff at home with the boys because I was away so much,” David said.
“Before the accident, we were just starting to wind down our lives a little bit, getting to a point where we could enjoy more time together.
“Then this happens and it’s all over – that’s the thing that hurts the most.
“Kaylene had a lot of things that she was doing, she was looking after her parent’s affairs in the rest home.
“I just felt I owed it to her to pay a bit back for doing all of the things she used to do for everyone else.
“I never got the chance to do that.”
For the Saegenschnitter family, life since the crash has been challenging to say the least – the flow on effects impacting each individual member in different ways.
With countless court hearings, and travel back and forth to Adelaide, the family had to get used to seeing Barton’s face.
“The first time I faced him in court was a bit confronting, but then again, he is a human being like I am,” David said.
“You’re looking at someone who has done bad things to you, but at the end of the day, he’s just another person whose done some bad things.”
At Barton’s sentencing on Thursday morning, Judge Allen said he found the dash camera footage of the incident “shocking”.
“What is readily apparent from this footage is the breathtakingly dangerous manner in which you were driving your vehicle,” Judge Allen said.
“It is obvious, as has been accepted by your counsel, that your vehicle was travelling at tremendous speed.
“You failed to navigate the sweeping bend and such was the ineptitude of your driving that not only was your vehicle on the wrong side of the road, but in fact immediately at the time of the first collision, the two passenger side wheels of your vehicle were off the bituminised surface, in the gravel…
“The catastrophic aftermath of the collisions was also captured by the footage which depicts you slinking off into a nearby paddock, cowardly leaving your dying and injured victims behind, failing to render any assistance.
“You were arrested by police approximately 47 minutes after the collision, some 600 metres away from the scene.
“Your behaviour towards police at that time was abusive, you were not making things any better for yourself to say the least.”
While Judge Allen was frank in his comments on Thursday, The Leader’s in-person chat with David was perhaps even more confronting.
“Everything was wrong, every step of the way he was wrong – there wasn’t one thing he had done right,” David said.
“And when he hit us, he ran away.
“That’s pretty much the most disgusting thing I ever saw.”
Barton had prior convictions for driving without due care, driving under disqualification and misuse of a motor vehicle and in June 2022 was convicted of aggravated driving without due care and contravening conditions of a probationary license.
Speaking on the matter publicly outside court on Thursday, David said the family is still processing the outcome of Barton’s sentencing.
“The head sentence was around about what we thought, but what perplexed us was the non-parole – to us, it didn’t seem like much of a deterring factor,” David said.
“I know no sentence ever brings Kaylene back, no sentence ever will, but I just believe the judge’s remarks (showed) that it was a very serious offence in his eyes, yet, we have a non-parole of five years, which is perplexing and as a family we’re still trying to process it.
“We are somewhat disappointed in what’s happened today.”
And while Barton has been sentenced to prison, the Saegenschnitter family have a life ahead without their wife, mother and grandmother.
“Just look at your partner today, and just imagine life if they weren’t there, and just see how that makes you feel – just imagine that person not there,” David said with emotion.
“I won’t use the term moving on because I don’t know how you can move on from this, you just can’t – you have to learn to live with it.”
Addressing the awaiting media outside court on Thursday, David’s poignant and sombre comments included a heartfelt plea for the public to see the real people behind the road toll statistics.
“I guess just look at how these things, what this does to families…it’s harrowing,” David said.
“If people thought about their actions the road toll wouldn’t be anywhere near (what) it is - but it is what it is…
“… (SA Police Commissioner) Grant Stevens comes on the radio, television all the time and nothing happens, nothing changes.
“I’ve never been involved in an accident as serious as that, when you drive a truck, you see a lot of stupid things all the time, to be honest not much surprises me anymore…
“Follow the news, probably by this time next week, there will be another death or two, it just doesn’t stop.”
