The failure to stop at the scene of an accident (s 61(1)(a) Road Safety Act 1986) is conceptually and legally distinct from the failure to render assistance (s 61(1)(b)), and a sentencing judge may treat the failure to stop as an aggravating circumstance of a negligent driving offence without infringing the De Simoni principle, even where the offender is separately charged with failing to render assistance. Mercy for exceptional hardship to a third party (such as a child of the offender) may properly be accorded solely through a reduction in the non-parole period rather than the head sentence.
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