A moment of inattention on the road by a teenage driver cost a Shepparton man his life and has now cost the teen his freedom.
Riley Jack Camin was only 18 years old when he was driving from Shepparton to Kyabram with his best mate in the passenger seat on January 20 this year.
It was 10.35pm, and they were travelling down Dunbar Rd at Lancaster.
As they approached the intersection of Lancaster Rd, they were talking.
Camin missed the warning sign that said a stop sign was 80m away.
When the NSW P-plater drove over a slight rise in the road where a channel was, spotted the stop sign at the intersection, and hit the brakes, he was only 10m away.
His mother’s ute that he was driving sailed through the intersection and crashed into a ute driven by Shepparton man Alexander ‘Bill’ Eagle.
Mr Eagle, 69, was on his way home from a golf club at Kyabram where he had been shooting rabbits to help the club control the pests.
He was driving along Lancaster Rd when Camin’s ute shot through the intersection and hit his vehicle.
The force of impact pushed both vehicles across the road, before Mr Eagle’s ute rolled and stopped on its side.
A police collision specialist determined Camin had slowed from 102km/h to 85km/h when his ute crashed into Mr Eagle’s, who was travelling at 89km/h.
Mr Eagle died, and Camin’s passenger, also then aged 18, received serious injuries.
The passenger was flown to hospital in Melbourne by air ambulance with injuries including a ruptured diaphragm, broken ribs, leg, wrist and hand, a collapsed lung, and damage to his spleen and liver.
Camin, now 19 and from Kyabram, pleaded guilty in the Shepparton County Court to dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing serious injury.
On Thursday, December 7, he was sentenced to two years in a youth detention centre.
In sentencing Camin, Judge David Brookes noted that Camin spoke to several people at the crash scene, and told one he “missed the intersection”, was talking, and “lost where you were”.
He also said there was no speeding, alcohol and drugs involved in the crash, and that the defence described it as “momentary inattention with horrific consequences”.
Judge Brookes also noted one of the witnesses at the crash spoke about when driving west on Dunbar Rd and the rise of the channel across the road, saying “you have to creep to the intersection because you can’t see”.
However, he said one of the victim impact statements from Mr Eagle’s family said it was a dangerous intersection, but Camin should have known that as he was from the area.
Judge Brookes spoke of references for Camin, including from his Merrigum employer, the Girgarre Football Club where he was captain of his team, and a former teacher who all spoke of “an otherwise responsible young man who was leading an otherwise productive life”.
He also noted Camin’s passenger, who was injured and the subject of one of the charges, supported him in court, as did that teen’s mother, who wrote a letter to say she had forgiven him.
Judge Brooks said Camin would receive a custodial sentence for the offences. However, he ruled that Camin should serve it in youth detention rather than adult jail, for reasons that included his young age, background and the remorse he had shown for his actions.
He did, however, refer to victim impact statements from Mr Eagle’s wife of 48 years, three children and other relatives, who spoke of their life now without him.
“That pain ... is one of the factors why court considers (offending) this so serious,” he said.
“Nothing will bring back Mr Eagle.”