Drugged bus driver gets eight months' jail

A Sydney bus driver who crashed a bus into a house while high on synthetic cannabis will spend at least four months in jail.

A drug-fuelled Sydney man who crashed a bus into a house after smoking synthetic cannabis behind the wheel has been sentenced to at least four months in jail.

Shaun John Murphy, 57, was caught on CCTV footage smoking synthetic cannabis on the Busways bus when it crashed into the Glenmore Park home in Sydney's west in June, narrowly missing a baby inside.

He won't be able to drive until 2016.

At Penrith Local Court on Wednesday, Magistrate Roger Clisdell sentenced Murphy to eight months jail with a minimum term of four months.

"I am satisfied that you are sorry," Mr Clisdell said.

"But the manner of this driving was reprehensible.

"In my view the imposition of a custodial sentence is inevitable."

Murphy was also disqualified from driving for 18 months and was given 28 days to pay $21,000 in damages to Busways.

Murphy sat silently in court and was accompanied by his two daughters and a member of the Salvation Army.

The court heard the former bus driver was a drug addict who had used the methamphetamine drug ice and cannabis since 1991.

On June 15, Murphy was seen administering synthetic cannabis through a pipe while driving the bus - sometimes steering with his elbows or not at all.

At one point he appeared to fall asleep, and his bus - which had no passengers at the time - mounted a footpath before hitting the front of the house.

A woman and a baby were inside at the time and the court heard the accident happened only seconds after the child had been removed from the front room.

He was disqualified from driving on the spot and a later drug test found traces of morphine and methamphetamine in his system.


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