Tesla driver who blamed the car's autopilot setting for crashing into a nurse discovers her fate as she faces deportation

A driver who blamed her Tesla's autopilot setting when she mowed down a nurse getting on a tram in March 2022 has been sentenced to nine months jail.

Indian national Sakshi Agrawal, 25, who is in Australia on a bridging visa, could be deported to her home country after she serves her sentence for the hit-and-run crime. 

The P-plater pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious injury and failure to stop in the Victorian County Court, just days before her trial was due to begin over the early morning crash on Wattletree Road in the Melbourne suburb of Armadale.

Nurse Nicole Lagos, then 26, spent a fortnight in an induced coma and suffered life-changing injuries after she was hit at 58km/h and thrown 10metres while boarding a tram.

The tram driver and other passengers heard a loud 'bang', while a driver behind Agrawal's $68,000 Model 3 Tesla saw Ms Lagos 'thrown into the air as high as the stop sign'. 

Agrawal initially fled the scene in a panic but returned two hours later, where she was arrested by police.

The court heard she initially told police that the Tesla was on autopilot and that its autobraking failed when Ms Lagos 'jumped' in front of her car.

But investigations later revealed the autopilot function wasn't activated at the time, an alert for a potential collision was triggered moments before the crash and that there was no record of braking.

CCTV showed the luxury vehicle overtaking multiple cars before ending up behind a busy tram which Agrawal then tried to beat when disaster struck. 

Defence barrister Nick Papas KC conceded that his client had lied to police.

'The reality is she was trying to rationalise her own conduct, trying to explain the inexplicable and how she could do such a thing,' he told the court.

The extent of Ms Lagos' injuries were laid bare in court, where her harrowing victim impact statement was read out.

She spent two weeks in an induced coma with a traumatic brain injury at The Alfred - the hospital where she worked.

'After I woke from the coma, I was in post-traumatic amnesia,' Ms Lagos' statement read.

'It took me 30 days to be competent enough to remember things such as the day of the week.

'I'll have brain damage for the rest of my life.'

Before the collision, Ms Lagos went to the gym six days a week and was training for a marathon.

She now has a minimal social life, low self-confidence, can't concentrate for more than an hour at a time and worries if she'll ever meet a life partner and have a family.

'Life without dreams is pretty grim. There's nothing to work towards,' she said.

'Every time I pass a car or see a tram, it's a reminder that this has happened to me.'

Judge Peter Rozen told Agrawal she didn't stop to help her injured victim, as was required by law and 'common decency', the Herald Sun reported.

'Instead you accelerated to a speed of approximately 78km/h and continued to drive for around three kilometres before parking your vehicle in Epping Street, Malvern' where she called her housemate and boyfriend, telling them she was 'scared and did not know what to do'.

The judge said Agrawal's dangerous driving wasn't caused by inattention, but 'misjudgment' when she chose to pass the tram before it came to a stop.

He rejected the defence lawyer's call for a community corrections order, instead agreeing with prosecutors that a custodial sentence was required.

'A message must be sent by the courts to other drivers, especially young people like you,' he said.

Agrawal, who was fired from her security job because of her crimes, had hoped to become an Australian permanent resident.

But she now faces deportation when her jail sentence has been served.

Her driver's licence was cancelled and she was banned from getting another for four years.