Drive for justice

By Kath Gannaway
THE father of a 21-year-old Warburton man killed in a car crash at Warburton in 2007 has called for radical and early intervention against drivers who drink and drive.
Wayne Murray wants the judicial system to use the sentencing powers it has to send a message to drink-drivers that they will pay a heavy price for their culpability.
And he wants education used as a tool to try to stop habitual drink-drivers.
Christian Dupuy, of Woori Yallock, pleaded guilty in the County Court to one count of culpable driving after his passenger, Mr Murray’s son Russell, died when Dupuy crashed his car into a tree on Dammans Road in Warburton in May 2007.
Judge Lance Pilgrim sentenced Dupuy to six years’ jail with a minimum four-year term for killing Murray who had turned 21 the day before.
The sentence, Mr Murray said, was manifestly inadequate.
“Sentences for culpable driving have increased from five to 20 years in the past eight years, and still we’re not getting anywhere near sentences that would act as a deterrent,” Mr Murray said.
“He (Dupuy) got six with a minimum of four years, and that means we’re using only a fifth of what the legal system allows.”
More critical, in Mr Murray’s mind, is the need to stop drink-drivers before they kill or injure.
The court heard that five months earlier, Dupuy was drunk and speeding when he drove into a parked car in December 2006, injuring himself and the stepbrother of Russell Murray, who was a passenger in the car.
His licence had been suspended nine days earlier for speeding.
“Had he been stopped there and then, if the system allowed for people who are identified as a risk to go to jail for intensive education and rehabilitation, my son might still be here,” Mr Murray said.
He said the system was backwards – reactive instead of proactive – and dismissed arguments that such initiatives were not feasible because of cost.
“If you want to talk about the cost, if we as a society spent a little bit of money earlier on education, first of all I would have had my son here, you wouldn’t have the ongoing cost that comes from the effect this has had on so many people, and ultimately the cost of a longer jail sentence.
“In our case this has ruined the lives of probably 20 people and there are another 50 who are damaged.
“What sort of cost is that?” he asked.
Mr Murray said he is not calling for hard-core jail but a serious intervention with education as the tool to stop the carnage.
“If we see these people getting booked once or twice, maybe it’s time to get an assessment and if they offend again then they go to jail for re-education, including going to the morgue.”
The court heard that Dupuy had a history of binge drinking, had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood and that he was travelling at least 27 km/h over the speed limit on a bend when he crashed.
Mr Murray said it was devastating to hear in the court that Dupuy had been warned against driving by two separate people on the night of the crash. “They offered him a bed, but he ignored them,” he said.
The question was whether any of the people who knew that Dupuy was too drunk to drive, should have called police on that night, or whether anyone put in that situation should “dob in” a potential killer. And that is, Mr Murray says, a hard question, even for him. “I think, probably, yes,” he says eventually after considering the question carefully and not wanting to lay blame with others.
“Maybe that’s a question we should all be asking. We have to ask these questions,” he said.