Friends mourn the death of Laura Hallinan, 19, who died in a car accident last year. 67617 Picture: XAVIER SMERDON
By VANESSA VALENZUELA
A SPEEDING drink-driver has been sentenced to more than nine years in jail for a horrific crash that killed a teenager and left five passengers seriously injured in Werribee South.
Twenty-eight year-old Hoppers Crossing man Peter Dean was speeding at about 128 kmh with an estimated blood alcohol reading of .09 when he lost control of the car on Diggers Rd, killing 19-year-old Laura Hallinan.
Dean pleaded guilty to a charge of culpable driving and other driving-related charges, as well as a separate offence of having sex with a minor.
Judge Meryl Sexton said Dean had been drinking with friends at a hotel on the night before six passengers piled into the car after 11pm in July last year.
“You initially intended to drive your passengers home in two lots, so that the car would not be overcrowded. Apparently, you felt you could not object when they all got in your car at once.”
Judge Sexton said Dean had received notice of his licence suspension on the day of the crash for a speeding infringement.
“It would seem that you have a tendency to travel well beyond the speed limit, and you would have known this when you set out to drive these young people home in an overloaded car, at night, while you were affected by alcohol.”
One passenger had yelled at Dean to slow down seconds before he lost control at a bend and crashed into a guard rail and two trees.
Laura died at the scene of the crash and the other five passengers survived with serious injuries.
Dean will serve a minimum term of six years and 10 months and will be disqualified from driving for three years after his release.
