Drink-driver admits seriously injuring female in head-on crash at Panmure

Reece Taylor, 33, of Nullawarre, on Tuesday faced the Melbourne County Court and pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious injury, drink-driving and using a mobile phone while driving.

Taylor recorded a blood-alcohol reading of .092 and told police at the scene of the crash that he'd consumed six Jack Daniel's cans in the hours before.

The court heard he was travelling on the Princes Highway, west of Panmure, when he approached a sweeping bend about 11.40pm on April 9, 2019.

Taylor travelled onto the wrong side of the road, colliding head on with a Nissan Dualis.

The Dualis rolled numerous times before colliding with a stationary truck at a roadside truck park and coming to a stop on its roof.

Airbags were deployed and the female victim was trapped in her car.

She was later airlifted to Royal Melbourne Hospital with multiple fractures, including to her spine, and injuries to her head and spleen.

The now 27-year-old victim suffers ongoing weekly migraines, persistent back pain and frequently attends a Warrnambool pain clinic.

The court heard Taylor had no recollection of the crash.

Phone records showed he texted his ex-wife 23 times between 11.16pm and 11.32pm that night.

His ex-wife told police he also sent a photograph of his speedometer, and a woman screamed "help me" in a voice message left by Taylor.

Jonathan Rattray, representing Taylor, said his client was subjected to "extreme violence" as a child and had recently experienced abstinence from alcohol for the first time in more than two decades.

Judge Frances Hogan said the offending was serious, that the victim can no longer work and required a lot of assistance.

"Her life has just been catastrophically changed by this," she said.

She adjourned sentencing so Taylor could undergo a psychiatric assessment and warned that an immediate jail sentence was "highly likely" .

Taylor will appear in court again on March 16.

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