NATION Deadly driver’s horror reading
AN unlicensed and speeding driver who killed a mother and her unborn twins was also five times over the legal alcohol limit.
Blood tests on Richard Moananu have allegedly returned a reading of 0.245. The legal limit for driving in New South Wales is 0.05.
Police, who are still awaiting legal advice on whether they can lay fresh charges against Moananu, 29, over the deaths of Katherine and Bronco Hoang’s unborn twin boys, are expected to oppose his application for bail in Penrith Local Court on Friday.
The father- of- four remains under police guard in Westmead Hospital where he was taken with significant leg injuries after his Mazda veered on to the wrong side of the road and collided head- on with the Hoang family’s Nissan Tiida.
He is already facing 10 charges as police have said in court documents that he was unlicensed and doing more than 105km/ h in what is a 60km/ h zone at 7.40pm on September 28. Katherine Hoang, 23, was only days away from giving birth to her babies when Moananu crashed into the family’s car, killing a relative, 17, who was driving, and seriously injuring Bronco Hoang, who was supervising the learner driver.
Charity worker Mr Hoang woke from a coma last week also in Westmead Hospital to be told the tragic news that his heavily pregnant wife and twins had died.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has since pledged to review the law after a public outcry that Moananu seemingly cannot be charged with killing the babies because they are not considered people until they are born. The death of a foetus is treated as a crime against the mother.
The last time a bill came before parliament to change the law was in 2015 when it was passed in the Lower House but was not introduced into the Upper House. A friend of Mr Hoang, Anna Dang, said the family would welcome a change in the law to recognise the death of an unborn child.
“Bronco’s family was outraged that the charges did not take into account the unborn babies’ lives,” Ms Dang said.
“Bronco and his wife and the families were planning their lives around their first grandchildren. What happened was a real tragedy.”
Ms Hoang was expecting to give birth in just days, after marrying her university sweetheart in April.