An army veteran who became "overly interested" in safety measures at a Queensland roadworks site has been jailed for driving into a traffic controller while filming him with his phone.
Owen James Clement was sentenced to a head term of 18 months, with a parole release date of August 6, in the Brisbane District Court on Tuesday.
The father-of-two earlier pleaded guilty to dangerously operating a vehicle causing grievous bodily harm and leaving the scene without obtaining help.
The court heard the charge stemmed from an "ironic" run-in with a traffic controller at a Caboolture roadworks site in March 2015.
In sentencing, Judge Paul Smith noted Clement thought the site was staffed by "cowboys" and became "overly interested" in what he believed were the lax standards on display.
Tensions culminated when Clement hit the controller, throwing him about three metres, after appearing to try to film the man on his mobile phone from behind the wheel.
"The irony of the whole situation is that you ended up driving dangerously and injuring this person," Judge Smith said.
He said he was travelling at a speed of about 15km/h to 30km/h when he struck the man, who suffered injuries to his arm and still had weakness to his left hand.
But Clement had also been found to be suffering symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, Judge Smith observed.
The court heard the New Zealand-born man had served in East Timor before voluntarily discharging himself from the Australian Defence Force and working as a supervisor on road projects.
Both of these stints involved horrific accidents - a mate being crushed by an armoured carrier and a colleague in turn falling from a bridge onto a metal spike - which Judge Smith said exacerbated Clement's PTSD.
However, he also noted a previous conviction for driving under the influence and said time in custody was necessary.
He also ordered Clement be disqualified from holding a driver's licence for two years.
