The presence of drugs in a driver's bloodstream cannot be treated as an aggravating factor in sentencing for dangerous driving causing serious injury unless a causal connection between the drugs and the offending conduct is positively established. Where the offender is separately charged with a drug-driving offence, the drug presence is punished through that discrete charge and cannot also be used to aggravate the dangerous driving offence without proof of causation. Where an offender has an acquired brain injury that contributed to the offending, the [name withheld] factors (reduced moral culpability, reduced suitability for general deterrence, and increased burden of incarceration) apply, but the court may increase driving disqualification periods based on expert evidence that cognitive limitations render the offender unfit to drive.
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