“I am very glad I’m alive, but then none of my pain, or my suffering would be here,” the girl, who cannot be identified, told a Melbourne court between tears.

“I’m so tired of it and I wish I had died.”

“I don’t want a funky-looking leg, I want a normal leg,” she told the court.

“I just want to be like everyone else.”

Russell admitted to police when he was interviewed about the crash that he knew there was a risk in towing two trailers and driving a truck with defective brakes.

“Yes. And I still took the risk,” he told police, prosecutor Jim Shaw told the court.

Shaw said Russell breached his duty of care by being criminally negligent and fell greatly short of the standard of care a reasonable person would have exercised in continuing to drive the truck.

“He knew that he would be driving on parts of the road which had steep descents that would be difficult to navigate with brakes that did not work,” the prosecutor said.

“He also knew the risks to other road users if he were unable to stop the truck.”

The pre-sentence hearing continues this afternoon.