By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A MAN who blamed a Monash Freeway multi-vehicle crash on a sub-standard car service has been punished with a good-behaviour bond.
The 19-year-old Berwick TEC graduate and building apprentice veered left into another lane to avoid a stopped car among the freeway’s outbound heavy traffic in Endeavour Hills in February, a court was told.
In doing so, his vehicle clipped a Hilux and spun out of control across two lanes of the freeway, hitting a towed boat trailer and a Renault.
The collision caused the Renault to roll over; its driver hospitalised for three days due to glass showering his ear.
The accused’s lawyer told Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Monday the man pleaded guilty to careless driving but the case was not “typical” of a “19-year-old hooning along”.
The man had been travelling at 80 kilometres per hour, applied the brakes and “it just wasn’t happening”, the lawyer said.
The man was at the time on his way home from a booked car service, which included a brake check, “under the impression that everything was ship-shape”, the court was told.
A post-accident inspection found the front brake pads were worn “very low” and should have been changed – but were still roadworthy.
The driver had undergone a safe-driver course before the incident, had not incurred a demerit point since gaining his licence two years ago and cared for his unwell mother, the man’s lawyer said.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said it was fortunate given the number of vehicles damaged that no one was seriously injured or killed.
In granting a 12-month good-behaviour bond, Mr Vandersteen took into account the man’s age, strong work ethic, financial circumstances and absence of prior convictions.
