A Hillside hit-run driver has been jailed for almost a decade for killing a teenager and seriously injuring another nearly hit two other people in similar circumstances the previous night.
Steven Vasilevski’s appalling driving and complete disregard for others over 28 hours was detailed in the County Court on Tuesday, after which judge Carolyn Douglas jailed the 35-year-old for nine years and seven months.
It also emerged Vasilevski was arrested twice for driving offences in the hours before the fatal crash, but that police were powerless to keep him in custody despite the appearance he was drug-affected. He was released on both occasions, only to offend again.
On the night of Australia Day 2015, Vasilevski crashed into a stationary car in Deer Park and failed to stop amid a block of erratic driving, which included him twice falling asleep at the wheel and then waking to resume driving.
In Derrimut that night he just missed hitting a woman, then 19, and her brother, then nine, on a pedestrian crossing. The siblings jumped to safety.
The following night, about 11.30pm, Anthony Nguyen and Jasmine Vuong weren’t so lucky.
Passers-by stopped to assist but Anthony died in hospital the following day. Ms Vuong suffered head injuries and a broken pelvis and, the court heard on Tuesday, still experiences bad headaches and pain in her body, and struggles with memory loss and difficulties controlling her emotions.
Ms Vuong previously told the court her life had forever changed, that she had unsuccessfully tried to return to study and that her lost ambitions had left a “big empty hole in my heart”.
“I didn’t deserve this and neither did Anthony,” she said.
Vasilevski had a history of drug abuse, Judge Douglas said, and at the time was using cannabis daily and bingeing on cocaine and ice on weekends.
When arrested in Derrimut on the night before the fatal crash, the court heard, he asked police if they could take him to St Kilda so he could “buy some gear”.
But police were unable to test him for drugs because he refused a blood test, as is his legal right.
Police and others have previously campaigned for motorists to face tougher penalties for refusing drug tests.
Vasilevski was released without charge but then stole a forklift in Moonee Ponds. He was again arrested and released without charge.
Twenty-one hours after his second release he hit the teenagers.
Police said on Tuesday they were unsure if they could have held Vasilevski in custody even if he had tested positive to drugs.
“We can take their licence from them straight away, or suspend their licence, but that’s about as far as it goes,” Detective Acting Sergeant Trevor Collins said.
You can’t remove someone’s liberty straight away based on these sort of issues.”
Vasilevski was initially charged with culpable driving causing death, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. But Judge Douglas ruled last year that prosecutors would be unable to prove he had drugs in his system, and so the major charge was replaced by dangerous driving causing death, which carries a 10-year maximum.
He pleaded guilty to that charge and dangerous driving causing serious injury, two counts of failing to stop after an accident, two of failing to render assistance and two of reckless conduct endangering serious injury, and other lesser charges.
Judge Douglas said Vasilevski was “a danger to the community”, whose “extremely serious and chilling offending” defied the convention that road users were entitled to believe motorists obeyed the rules.
“Your offending … was despicable. You behaved in a callous manner, having no regard for the wellbeing of any person that you struck,” she said.
Vasilevski’s drug use increased after a relationship breakdown, the court heard, and he began a rehabilitation program after the crash, but failed to comply with requirements.
Those failures, Judge Douglas said, showed a lack of remorse and insight, though he had stayed drug-free in prison.
The former truck driver, who has past convictions for speeding and drink-driving, must serve 7½ years before he is eligible for parole.
Detective Acting Sergeant Collins said the victims’ families had been surprised by the extent of Vasilevski’s crimes but were pleased with the sentence.
“It sends a pretty big message to people in the community that if you behave in this manner you will suffer the consequences of a serious sentence,” he said.
Judge Douglas commended investigating police in tracking down Vasilevski to his Hillside home after the fatal crash, and to a woman who followed his car the previous night and detailed his crimes.
By Adam Cooper, The Age
