A woman car driver who left two brothers with multiple fractures when she knocked them off their motorbike has been handed a suspended sentence and driving ban.

Lynell Bettyann Blind pleaded guilty to injuring Michael Deponte, 21, and Jason Deponte, 28, through dangerous driving. The 49-year-old was on her way to pick her three children up from school when she drove into the path of the oncoming cycle.

Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves described the collision as resulting from "momentary lapse in concentration" on her part.

Prosecutor Takiyah Burgess explained Blind was driving west along Middle Road, Warwick, at 4.60 p.m. on March 28, 2008. She stopped close to the centre line in order to turn right into Longford Road.

Jason Deponte was riding a motorcycle east, with Michael Deponte as his pillion passenger. Blind turned across Middle Road into their path as she attempted to drive onto Longford Road.

Both men fell off the motorcycle and onto the ground. Jason Deponte suffered broken ribs, punctured lungs, a dislocated collar bone and a lacerated knee. His brother suffered a fractured skull.

Ms Burgess said there was insufficient evidence to determine how fast either of the vehicles was travelling.

Blind, from Sandys, pleaded guilty on Monday, the day her retrial in the case was due to begin. Her trial last year ended in a hung jury. At the sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Ms Burgess suggested Blind should expect a three-month jail sentence, noting: "Very serious traffic collisions are on the increase in our islands. Those that these courts find responsible should be subject to a deterrent sentence."

However, defence lawyer Mark Pettingill said the case was not one that merited a prison sentence. He explained that Blind, who has children aged six, nine and 12, drives the same route every day and had a previously "impeccable" driving record.

Mr. Pettingill suggested the motorbike was speeding and there may have been a degree of "contributory negligence" on the part of the victims. However, Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves disagreed, telling Mr. Pettingill: "I don't see one piece of contributory negligence in this case. Not one piece. This was a careless act by the driver. A momentary lapse of concentration, that's what I would call it. That is so easy to do on these roads it isn't even funny. How many times have I had narrow escapes like that? How many times have you?"

Mr. Pettingill also described the scene as an accident blackspot. A fatal collision occurred there in similar circumstances on November 8, 2006. On that occasion, car driver Trina Doyling was turning across Middle Road onto Longford Road when she hit 52-year-old motorcyclist David Santucci, who was travelling in the opposite direction. She pleaded guilty to causing death through dangerous driving and was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months by Mr. Justice Greaves, who also meted out 12 demerit points.

Before Blind was sentenced, she addressed the judge saying: "I did not see the young men on their bike but I am very sorry for the injuries that they did receive and I just ask for the mercy of the court."

Sentencing her to a three-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, plus a six-month driving ban and 12 demerit points, Mr. Justice Greaves said: "The injuries to the victims in the case were serious and expensive and the sympathy of this court is held out to them. They should not think that by my sentence I am in any way trivialising the trauma that they have endured, but justice must be balanced. This was a case not of any persistent course of dangerous driving. To the contrary. It was a case of a momentary lapse on the part of the defendant."

The sentence means Blind will not serve prison time unless she gets into further trouble in the next year. The Deponte brothers did not attend the court hearing.