<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>333766</docID> <postdate>2024-11-22 17:43:14</postdate> <headline>Truckie jailed 20 years after boy killed in hit-and-run</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-333768" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/rian-strathdee2-e1732257714839.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="533" /></p> <caption>Rian Strathdee was asleep in the back of his family's station wagon when a truck slammed into it. Photo: Strathdee family</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Stephanie Gardiner</strong></span></p> <p><strong>Rian Strathdee was a happy little boy, who had just learnt to ride a bike and was excited to show his cousins his new skill.</strong></p> <p>But the six-year-old was killed on the way to his cousins' Canberra house, when a truck driver rear-ended his family's car on the Hume Highway southwest of Sydney on November 26, 2004.</p> <p>The driver of the truck, Allan Michael Dyson, left the scene of the crash, only to be arrested in Queensland in October 2022.</p> <p>Nearly 20 years to the day of the collision, Dyson was on Friday sentenced to at least three years' jail, with a maximum term of five years and six months.</p> <p>A jury in August found the 61-year-old guilty of dangerous driving occasioning death and two counts of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm related to injuries to Rian's father and brother.</p> <p>NSW District Court Judge Ross Hudson found Dyson had time to slow down or change lanes to avoid the Subaru, which was travelling on a slip lane at the exit of a service station.</p> <p>But he could not find beyond reasonable doubt that Dyson was speeding.</p> <p>"It is important to note at the outset that cases of this type are notoriously difficult for sentencing courts - there can be no winner," Judge Hudson said.</p> <p>"The sentence imposed does not and cannot measure the value of Rian Strathdee's life or the injuries sustained."</p> <p>The judge emphasised the sole issue at Dyson's trial was whether he was driving dangerously.</p> <p>A witness told the court he heard Dyson on a radio saying words like: "I'll teach these c<strong><em>s, I've pushed them off the f</em></strong>ing road."</p> <p>The comments showed Dyson knew there was a collision when he drove away, but they could not be used to measure his moral culpability under the legal framework of the charges, the judge said.</p> <p>Ahead of sentencing, Dyson told a psychologist he thought the truck's contact with the Subaru – driven by the boy's mother Jasmine Payget – was minimal.</p> <p>"It was only a tap, I panicked," Dyson said, according to the psychologist's report read to court.</p> <p>Dyson, whose criminal record included drug-affected driving in the years after the crash, had shown no remorse or contrition, the judge said.</p> <p>A spokeswoman for the family said they accepted the sentence, but the long wait for justice had taken a toll.</p> <p>At an earlier hearing, Ms Payget said Dyson's actions had left the family in limbo for 20 years.</p> <p>"Hit-and-run crashes are particularly cruel for victims, adding another layer of distress to the enormous grief from the death of our child," she said.</p> <p>His father Laurie Strathdee, who broke his neck in the crash, said Rian was "full of life".</p> <p>"We miss him dearly, he would be a lovely young man," Mr Strathdee told the court at the earlier hearing.</p> <p>With time already served, Dyson will be eligible for parole in October 2025.</p> </body>