The family of an elderly couple killed when a speeding truck driver crashed his "45-tonne missile" into their car say the justice system has failed them.
Terrence and Moira Codling had just returned from celebrating their 70th birthdays in October 2007 when the truck, travelling nearly 40km/h too fast, tipped, crossed onto their side of the road and crushed their car at Toolern Vale, northwest of Melbourne.
Truck driver Michael Matthew Aparo was sentenced to a minimum of three years' jail in the Victorian County Court on Tuesday.
The sentence was greeted with gasps and shakes of the head by members of the Codling family.
Outside court, the Codlings' son Paul expressed disbelief at the sentence.
"To take two lives and he has got three years to serve, to us it just seems absolutely ludicrous," he said.
"He wilfully drove that truck like an idiot and took the lives of our parents who were absolutely beautiful people, never did wrong by anybody.
"He has just robbed us and our children and all their friends of two beautiful people and I just can't believe the judge can sit there and give that sort of sentence."
Sentencing Aparo, 24, of Glenroy, to a maximum of six years' jail, judge Stuart Campbell said he realised his sentence would not please either the Codlings or the family of Aparo.
He described the truck as a "45-tonne missile" and said its trailer could not cope with the speed it was travelling.
The court heard the trailer, laden with sand, had swerved onto the wrong side of the road, narrowly missing another car as it travelled down a hill and around a sweeping bend.
"You will have to live your life with the knowledge you, by your actions, or inactions caused the death of two loved people," Judge Campbell said.
Aparo was found guilty by a jury of two counts of culpable driving and two counts of reckless conduct endangering life.
The court heard another motorist was injured when her car hit the crashed trailer.
A fourth man had to swerve off the road to avoid being struck by the trailer.
Mr Codling said his parents, from Clifton Springs near Geelong, had been together since they were 17, and were to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary a few months after the crash.
He said on the day of the crash the couple were visiting his house on the way home from celebrating their birthdays in the Yarra Valley.
"They would be the first people to tell him they forgive (Aparo)," Mr Codling said.
"We won't. What we have lost, there is no way we could ever forgive him for what he has done to our family".aap 17 Nov 2009
What else do you expect from a Convict - Anglo-Masonic Legal System.
Australia the Lucky Country - Where you can kill someone, and do minimum jail time.
No comments:
Post a Comment