A YOUNG Asian migrant who killed his friend when he crashed a vehicle whilst driving dangerously and intoxicated near Naracoorte earlier this year has been imprisoned for two years and six months.
Lal Din Sang, 19, appeared in the Adelaide District Court to be sentenced after earlier pleading guilty to aggravated causing death by dangerous driving and aggravated causing harm by dangerous driving.
The offences related to an incident on September 1 when Din Sang was driving a car carrying two other passengers on the Riddoch Highway.
Driving unlicensed and at speeds of between 124kph and 163kph, Din Sang veered off the road and rolled the vehicle.
A 22-year-old Victorian man was ejected from the rear seat of the vehicle and killed.
The front seat passenger suffered minor lacerations and abrasions and injuries to his abdomen, thigh and neck.
A blood alcohol reading of .108 indicated Din Sang had been drinking before the incident.
Judge Peter Brebner said the alcohol consumed had compromised his ability to properly manage the vehicle.
“(This was) to the extent that your manner of driving created a risk of death or serious injury which was well over and above the ordinary risks of the road such that it can only be regarded as dangerous,” Judge Brebner said.
The court heard Din Sang escaped the crash with only minor cuts and was arrested by police on the scene.
He has remained in custody since the fatal crash.
Din Sang told the authors of a pre-sentence report he was driving the vehicle to drop his friends home because they believed they were too drunk.
He said he did not feel drunk, otherwise he would not have chosen to drive.
Judge Brebner highlighted the large impact the incident has had on the victim’s mother.
“The deceased’s mother says she has no words to describe the emotional and financial impacts of the loss of her only son,” Judge Brebner said.
“It is plain his death has affected her significantly and her dream of him caring for her as she gets older cannot now come true.”
Din Sang was sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment with a two year non-parole period.
The sentence was backdated to start on September 1.
Judge Brebner also disqualified the defendant from holding or obtaining a licence for 11 years.
He said the offending was too serious to consider suspending the sentence or allowing it to be served on home detention.
