'I lose my leg - he gets a slap on the wrist'

Amy Duncan had hoped to join the Navy but now cannot pass the physical test. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The teenager whose leg had to be amputated above the knee after she was hit by a drag-racing car is furious the driver did not go to jail.

Amy Duncan, 18, still feels as if she can wiggle her old toes despite wearing a heavy prosthetic limb because of the accident on Manuka Rd, Bayview, last April.

The former Glenfield College student, who is on a sickness benefit but says she's not covered by ACC for physiotherapy, was standing at a carpark at the bottom of the windy street when the white Subaru WRX hit her. Friends rushed to her aid and made emergency calls.

Yesterday Ms Duncan was at the North Shore District Court to see driver Kahn Roper, 18, sentenced to 11 months' home detention, ordered to pay $8000 in reparation and disqualified from driving for two years.

He was convicted of drag racing causing injury and driving with excess alcohol.

Ms Duncan said while nothing would bring back her left leg, she was disappointed at the sentence and Roper's apparent lack of remorse.

"People get killed from that kind of stuff [dangerous driving] and the person that killed them gets three years [in prison] and that kind of thing," she told the Herald.

And she told NZPA: "I'm quite shocked. I lose my leg and he just gets a slap on the wrist. There's nothing I can do."

In court she read out a victim impact statement about life before the accident.

"I was on top of the world. I was going to be able to financially help my mum by joining the Navy, but all that was taken away from me in a few short minutes," she said.

In sentencing, Judge Barbara Morris told Roper the combination of alcohol, inexperience and speed led him to lose control of the vehicle.

"You hurtled into this young woman and within seconds her life was physically and emotionally crushed," she said. "Nothing can bring back the life she had."

Roper's lawyer said although his client couldn't turn back the clock, he wanted to do whatever he could to make things better.

Raymond Marsh, 19, was also charged with unlawful drag racing causing injury and is due to appear in the Auckland District Court in July.

Brendon Ashton, 19, was charged with giving false information to police and was discharged without conviction.

Ms Duncan is on medication for pain, sleep loss and depression. She has been in and out of hospital and doctor surgeries and will have an MRI on her "stump" - as she calls it - in June to see if surgery is required on her inflamed thigh bone and neuroma.

She is on to her second prosthetic limb after she outgrew the first metal one.

Ms Duncan said she had tried to find work as a receptionist but struggled without a qualification and limited mobility.

Her dream of being a communications specialist in the Navy is over because she cannot pass the physical test.