A man with a prosthetic leg and under the influence of cannabis mistook his car's accelerator for the brake, killing a young boy in a car park.
Wayne Peter Hunt, 55, pleaded guilty to one charge of dangerous driving causing death in January and was sentenced in the Supreme Court at Darwin on Friday.
He will serve three months in prison and the rest of his three-year sentence in home detention, suspended after nine months.
Acting Justice Meredith Huntingford said she took into account Hunt's physical disability including his prosthetic leg, his mild cognitive impairment, and his PTSD and depressive disorder in her sentencing.
"It is plain to me that a period of imprisonment is likely to be considerably more onerous (for you) than it would be for other members of the community," she said.
About midday on December 20, 2022, Hunt was leaving a supermarket in Palmerston with an iced coffee in his hands and walked towards his ute which had a newly fitted bull bar.
He then accidentally dropped the bottle under the car and, while trying to retrieve the drink, he hit the accelerator instead of the brake and pinned the child to a wall.
Hunt took eight seconds to reverse the vehicle after witnesses began yelling at him to do so.
The boy died at the scene.
"I walked out of the shop and I opened the door of the car. I dropped my milk and it rolled under the car," Hunt told police at the time.
"I hopped in, and reversed back. I hadn't reversed far enough, so I went to reverse but I've gone forward."
The court was told of Hunt's long-term physical injuries from several motorbike accidents, one of which required the amputation of his right leg.
Hunt was not properly licensed to drive the ute used during the accident due to a serious motorcycle crash in 2008 which left him with a prosthetic leg.
The ute he drove to the supermarket was not modified for his condition as required by NT Roads.
Drug testing also found he had cannabis in his system "approximately equivalent to the effects experienced by a person with a blood alcohol concentration in the range 0.05 per cent to 0.1 per cent".
"Your decision to drive affected by cannabis coupled with your decision to drive a vehicle which you knew was not suitably modified to you were both compounding circumstances," Justice Huntingford said.
"Your dangerous driving existed from the moment you decided to drive."
Hunt was supported by family in court and sat sobbing while being sentenced.
Outside court, Hunt's lawyer, Matt Hubber, said he was glad the case was over.
"He accepts his responsibility," he said.
The boy's family was also visibly upset outside court after the sentencing.
Hunt will released from prison in May.
