L-driver blames herself for death: court

A NSW coroner's recommendation that tips for L-Plate supervisors be printed in log books has been welcomed by the mother of a woman killed by a learner driver.

The mother of a young woman killed when a learner driver ploughed into a bus queue has welcomed a NSW coroner's recommendation that tips for L-Plate supervisors be printed in their log books.

Fashion student Emma Hansen, 20, was killed and 11 others were injured when Rose Deng mistook the accelerator for the brake during a driving lesson in Sydney's south in March 2007.

Her car mounted the kerb at Railway Parade at Kogarah and slammed into a queue of people waiting for a bus.

A charge of negligent driving occasioning death against Ms Deng, 42, was conditionally dismissed in January this year under the Mental Health Act.

In his findings, Deputy State Coroner Malcolm MacPherson said Ms Deng's car "swept down the footpath like a Tsunami", likening the devastation left in its wake to that of a terrorist attack.

"It is difficult, if not impossible, to put into words the horror of that moment," Mr MacPherson told Glebe Coroner's Court on Wednesday.

"The various photos taken at the scene show the carnage that resulted - bodies strewn about, bus signals flattened, empty prams crushed - a scene more like that seen after a terrorist attack."

Mr MacPherson recommended that guidelines for learner driver supervisors - which are currently available on the Roads and Traffic Authority's (RTA) website - be included in the learner driver's log book used to record every lesson.

The RTA's lawyer, Chris Ronalds SC, said the authority was "more than happy" to adopt the recommendation and include the guidelines in the next print run, due in three or four months time.

Speaking outside the inquest, Ms Hansen's mother Lynne Hansen said she was satisfied by the outcome, even though no one had been held accountable for her daughter's death.

"I don't see how anything else really could have come out of it," she told reporters.

The findings would "probably" bring her family some closure, she said, adding that printing guidelines into the log book could help prevent similar accidents.

"I think if you are a mum or a dad you do tend to look through (the log book) fairly carefully," Mrs Hansen said.

"...anything that can help this not happen again is a good thing."

The first step was to warn parents to teach their children how to perform an emergency brake "before they do anything", she said.

Emma would be remembered as a "gorgeous, vibrant young woman who had the world at her feet" and loved her family above everything else, Ms Hansen said.

Earlier in the day, lawyer Mark Ierace said Ms Deng still "blamed herself to the point of significant psychological harm".

"(After the accident) she literally pulled her hair out - there were clumps of it found on the road," he said.

"She punched her face, she threw her head against the ground - to the extent that the police had to take the extraordinary step of restraining her."

The inquest was told the African immigrant, who endured torture in her Sudanese homeland before arriving in Australia in 1994, had an unspecified long-term "mental condition" which was exacerbated by the crash.

She is undergoing psychiatric treatment and did not appear before the inquest.