Mum jailed

By Tania Martin
A FORMER Ferntree Gully woman has been jailed for 35 months after a drunken crash seriously injured her young son last year.
Amanda Korver, 26, sobbed in the County Court last Friday as she was sentenced to 35 months’ jail with a minimum of 15 months.
The young pregnant mother appeared before Judge Joe Gullaci and pleaded guilty to three counts of negligently causing serious injury and one count of attempting to pervert the court of justice.
The court heard Korver had three previous drink driving convictions and had been disqualified from driving when the accident happened last December.
Prosecutor Damian Ellwood said shortly after 7.25pm on Tuesday 2 December 2008, Korver was seen driving west down Monbulk Road, near Mount Evelyn.
He said she veered across the road and swerved into oncoming traffic, injuring her young son and two other people.
Mr Ellwood said Korver recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.118 at the scene.
He said Korver maintained she was not the driver and witnesses heard her screaming out a man’s name.
She claimed she had picked up a hitch-hiker named Andrew who was driving the car. The following day, Korver’s then partner Michael Di Palmer, 22, told police that he had been driving.
Korver later admitted she had been driving. The court heard that she was driving and turned around to attend to her son and then crashed.
Defence counsel Allan Marshall told the court Korver had rehabilitated since the accident. He said she had only consumed alcohol once since then, at her mother’s 50th birthday party.
Mr Marshall said Korver had drug problems from a very young age. He said it all started when she took a trip to Amsterdam with her grandmother when she was just 14.
He said this had led to Korver smoking marijuana with her cousins.
“It’s a practice she continued until days prior to the accident,” he said.
The court heard Korver broke up with the father of her son, Jayden in April 2008 which led to her behaviour spiralling out of control.
Her mother Susan Korver said her daughter had changed dramatically since the accident, enrolling herself in parenting courses and working hard at drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
“She brought all drugs, and drug paraphernalia down to me and I called one of the police officers and gave it all to him,” she said.
Despite her drug taking, Ms Korver believes her daughter has always been a good mother.
“Having the car accident and nearly killing her son is the biggest wake-up call anyone can have,” she said.
“She will have to remember for the rest of her life that she nearly killed her son.”
Judge Gullaci accepted Korver was remorseful but said a message needed to be sent that it was unacceptable to put others at risk by drink driving.