An Indian Uber driver killed a beloved Australian grandfather when he ran a stop sign in a Victorian town and slammed into a car driven by the victim’s granddaughter and carrying his brother, who was also seriously hurt.
Anmoldeep Singh, 25, pleaded guilty in the County Court earlier this week to dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing serious injury over the horrific crash in Wandin North, east of Melbourne, on February 11, 2023.
The deadly smash occurred at the intersection of Clegg Road and Wellington Road, the Uber driver’s Toyota Corolla colliding with another Corolla carrying three people after Singh ignored the stop sign.
Singh was driving along Wellington Road, a 60km/h zone, with two passengers. The victim’s granddaughter Jorja O’Connor was driving down Clegg Road and had two family members in her car, her 89-year-old grandfather Lewis Carnegie in the front seat, and his 87-year-old brother Peter.
The crash caused Ms O’Connor’s car to rotate and hit an embankment before being flipped onto its roof. Lewis died at the Royal Melbourne Hospital three hours after the crash, while Peter survived the crash with serious injuries.
In a victim impact statement read to the court Ms O’Connor’s mother Ann described scene of the crash as a “warzone” burnt into her soul, the Herald Sun reported.
“Unfortunately by the time I got to the hospital, my dad had passed. I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t there to hold his hand, tell him I love him and give him a hug and a kiss,” she wrote.
“And I had the horrible task of telling his brother, my uncle Peter, who was injured and not in a great way.
“After delivering that horrible news to him, I had to go to Maroondah Hospital and tell my daughter that her grandfather had passed. The cries were deafening.”
She further said she will never forget the look on her father’s face while he was loaded into an ambulance by paramedics, that she could have lost her uncle and daughter as well, and that her family will never be the same.
The family was planning on celebrating Lewis’ 90th birthday and Ann’s 50th later in the year but described their heartbreak at not being able to celebrate those milestones.
Jorja O’Connor described the trauma the event has caused her in her own victim impact statement: “When I get in the car, I am taken back to this day. It happened so fast. I’ve never felt so helpless and terrified in my life, not for myself, but for my passengers.
“All I remembered at the time was ‘I have to make sure they are okay.”
Singh was heard at the scene saying “I’m sorry, please tell them I’m sorry” and asking “Are they okay?”
He will be sentenced July 23.
