Teen jailed for crash that killed best mate
It was a crash that changed the lives of two best friends. One died. The other has been jailed for nearly four years.
Apprentice builder Scott David Millar, 19, drank alcohol and had a ‘‘road cone beer bong’’ before driving and crashing near Alexandra on August 10, 2017.
Front-seat passenger Ravineel Avikash Sharma, also 19, died. His grieving family say Millar’s actions have left them broken. Millar appeared for sentencing on a charge of manslaughter and reckless driving causing injury in the High Court at Dunedin yesterday afternoon.
Justice Gerald Nation said no sentence could match the grief of the Sharma family.
‘‘You owe it to them to make something of your life after your prison sentence finishes. Do not let prison mark you for life.’’
He sentenced Millar to three years and 10 months’ jail, disqualified him from driving for five years and ordered him to pay $20,000 to the Sharma family.
Earlier a family friend of the Sharmas read a victim impact statement saying since the day of the crash ‘‘life stopped’’ for the family. The crash left them with broken hearts.
The family took their son back to Fiji for a traditional Hindu burial. That placed a heavy financial burden on them.
The court heard Millar used to visit the Sharma family often. They acutely felt the silence from him and his family after the crash.
‘‘Your actions have killed our precious son, Ravineel, and you have killed our entire family,’’ the statement said.
Defence counsel Russell Checketts said Millar had about a 30 per cent chance of surviving after the crash. After he pulled through, his parents did reach out to the Sharma family. They had reparations available for the Sharmas and offered their deepest condolences. The young men were the ‘‘closest of friends’’, Checketts said. Millar had written to the family, taken counselling and was remorseful.
‘‘He has let himself down . . . and his best friend’s family down.’’
Crown prosecutor Richard Smith said a sentence of six and a half years was appropriate, with an earlier driving charge in November 2016 an aggravating feature. He had received diversion for the earlier crash and completed a defensive driving course.
Smith confirmed the Sharma family would accept a $20,000 reparation payment offered by the Millar family.
It was hoped both parties would attend a restorative justice conference after the Sharma family’s year of mourning was over.
It was part of the tragedy that no-one told the intoxicated Millar not to drive on the night of the crash, Justice Nation said.
On August 10, 2017, Millar and Sharma, an apprentice plumber of Alexandra, drove to meet friends at a commercial garage for drinks after work.
Millar drank alcohol from a liquor outlet and more at the party before doing a ‘‘road cone [beer] bong’’ later that evening.
The police summary of facts said Millar used the orange plastic road cone as a funnel, doing one, possibly two, of the bongs.
During the party Sharma befriended Hayden Crawley, a new arrival to the town, who Millar offered a ride home.
Partygoers described Millar as ‘‘too drunk to drive’’. All three men got into Millar’s car, with Sharma in the front passenger seat. Both passengers asked him to slow down, but he did not. When asked how fast he was going replied ‘‘off the clock’’.
Near the Alexandra Airport terminal he performed ‘‘doughnuts’’ and later spun the vehicle through a muddy area off Coates Rd.
Speeding down the road, he pulled the handbrake while trying to make the vehicle ‘‘drift’’, but instead caused it to slide off the road and down a steep bank.
The vehicle hit a large tree, causing the roof to cave in to the height of the door sills.
Sharma died at the scene from severe head and neck injuries from the collapsed roof.