Family members have told of their devastation following the deaths of two motorbike riders by a driver on ice.
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Ashley Ward McDonald, 38, killed Wangaratta men Ross Stewart and Barry Holland after driving 1.9 metres on to the wrong side of the road and hitting their bikes.
McDonald, a sheep shearer who had been working long hours and using ice to stay awake, was travelling on the Goorambat-Thoona Road at Goorambat at 12.19pm on December 14, 2021.
He crashed into Mr Holland and Mr Stewart, who were both on Motto Guzzi bikes.
Mr Stewart died at the scene while Mr Holland clung to life for several agonising weeks before dying on January 8, 2022.
Mr Holland's loved ones told the Wangaratta County Court on Monday, April 22, that their lives would never be the same.
"Our dreams, our plans for the future all shattered in an instant by the reckless acts of another," his wife Shirley Holland said in her victim impact statement.
"The silence in our home, the empty chair at the dinner table, the lonely bed at night and my lonely retirement days ... life will forever be a lonely journey now.
"Life doesn't seem worth living if it wasn't with my loving husband.
"He was stolen from us too soon."
Graham Holland recalled hearing the news about his brother and said the thought of him being injured with a broken spine would stay with him.
"This haunting image is forever with me," he said.
The crash occurred when there were hospital visitation restrictions due to COVID-19.
Mr Holland travelled to Melbourne to see his brother in January 2022 but was unable to do so.
"Barry died that evening," he said.
"I didn't get a chance to say goodbye.
"He's now gone forever, taken away in tragic circumstances and I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye.
"The horror story is with me forever."
Mr Holland's daughter, Narelle Barnes, said it had been unbearable to watch him suffer in hospital.
His leg had to be amputated and she said seeing him in such a state was "soul destroying".
The court heard both of the late Wangaratta men were friends.
Tests showed McDonald, who lives in Tatong, had ice in his system to a level that would have impacted his driving abilities.
Experts said his 1994 Toyota HiLux utility was about 1.9 metres on the wrong side of the road, with the impact occurring on a sweeping bend near the intersection of Bungeet and Hammond roads.
A large number of people tied to both the victims and the offender were in court on Monday.
McDonald pleaded guilty to two counts of dangerous driving causing death earlier this month.
He had faced more serious culpable driving allegations before pleading guilty to the dangerous driving counts.
The father-of-two was taken into custody on Monday afternoon at the end of the legal proceedings, ahead of being sentenced.
The court heard jail was the only possible outcome on the two charges.
"No legal proceedings can bring back Mr Stewart or Mr Holland," defence lawyer Peter Chadwick said.
"The sentence to be imposed by your honour in no way reflects the value of their lives or the loss suffered by their families."
The court heard McDonald had no priors and was of otherwise good character.
Mr Chadwick said his client had been using ice for its stimulant effects to counter the fatigue of working "very long hours" as a shearer during the pandemic, with McDonald unable to obtain work assistance from others at the time.
He will be sentenced by Judge Peter Lauritsen on Wednesday morning.
