Byron John Cavanagh: Tenterden man jailed for serious hit-and-run that left victim wheelchair-bound

A Tenterden man who caused a crash that left another driver without “much hope of walking again” and terrified shire workers by driving his motorbike close to them with a shirt over his face has been jailed. Byron John Cavanagh, 38, appeared before Albany Magistrates Court on Tuesday, March 31 via video link from Albany Regional Prison to be sentenced for a range of charges relating to two driving incidents in Tenterden. His 10 charges included careless driving causing death, grievous bodily harm, or bodily harm, failing to stop after an incident occasioning bodily harm, and having no authority to drive. Police prosecutor Sgt. Gary Simpson told the court that on January 20, Cavanagh drove an unlicensed car out of his driveway in Tenterden, failed to give way, and his car and an oncoming van collided. The van swerved and rolled, leaving the driver with serious injuries including to his pelvis and spine that left him wheelchair-bound. Sgt. Simpson said instead of staying to help the victim, Cavanagh made a U-turn and drove back into his property, hiding the car in a back shed before returning to the front of his property. Witnesses who attended the scene of the crash noticed Cavanagh had a cut on his head, but when police questioned him about the incident, he denied any involvement. Police later discovered the car with damage to its bull bar consistent with the damage sustained by the van, and found the car’s registration had expired in 2024. Defence lawyer Sonia Anderson said Cavanagh had been test-driving the car after he had fixed it, and had not intended to drive very far out of his driveway. She said he had been distracted by a warning light on the dashboard and had not checked properly for oncoming traffic before pulling out onto the road. She also said Cavanagh told her he did not have a phone on him when the crash happened, so could not have called police. Cavanagh told her he had returned to the scene after others arrived and got the other driver a glass of water, and apologised to him for what had happened. A second incident occurred on March 12, 2025, when Cavanagh had been riding an unlicensed motorbike on the road adjacent to his Tenterden property, and had disturbed three female shire employees who were working on the road verge. He said Cavanagh rode his motorbike at speed past one of the women multiple times, close enough to scare her, while wearing a shirt over his face to conceal it. Sgt. Simpson said the shire workers felt intimidated enough by his behaviour, and worried things might escalate, that they packed up and left before reporting the incident to police. When police came to Cavanagh’s property to question him about it, they observed him get back on the same motorbike and attempt to ride away from them down a nearby railway line, ignoring police officers’ verbal demands for him to stop. Sgt. Simpson said there was “no reason” for Cavanagh to have been riding his motorbike so close to where the women were working, and that he acted to “cause distress and nothing more”. Cavanagh pleaded guilty to the charges on March 3 and March 31. Magistrate Rosemarie Myers said Cavanagh had a lengthy criminal history, particularly with traffic charges, and said the shire workers would have been “terrified” by his behaviour. As for the hit and run incident on January 20, Ms Myers said the victim remained in a wheelchair due to spinal injuries, after he had spent almost a fortnight in the intensive care unit at Royal Perth Hospital. She said he “did not hold much hope of walking again”. Cavanagh was sentenced to 13 months jail, backdated to January 21, and was made eligible for parole. He was also fined a total of $5100 for the offences, and had his driver’s licence disqualified for a further 15 months.