Danish mother avoids prison after crash left daughter paralysed

A 35-year-old Danish woman who caused a crash while under the influence of THC and nitrous oxide, leaving her three-year-old daughter permanently paralysed, has been given a suspended sentence by the Supreme Court, DR reports.

The court ruled Thursday that the woman would receive one year and nine months in prison, suspended, overturning a lower court’s decision for an unsuspended term. The crash occurred in Herlufmagle in September 2022 when the mother, impaired by THC and inhaling nitrous oxide, drove head-on into a roadside tree.

Her daughter, who was not properly secured in the back seat, suffered severe spinal and neck fractures. The injuries left the child permanently quadriplegic and dependent on a respirator, according to court documents.

The Supreme Court cited the “serious consequences” for the daughter’s well-being if separated from her mother as a key factor in the decision. The justices also acknowledged the mother’s lifelong burden of knowing she caused her child’s “very serious and permanent injuries.”

Lower courts had emphasised the woman’s history of violent crime and her impaired driving at the time of the crash, which legally qualified as reckless endangerment due to the aggravating circumstances. She had also been convicted a month earlier for a separate incident of THC-impaired driving on the Holbæk motorway.