A father-of-five who decided to drive through a flooded creek causing his two friends to drown has avoided being sent to jail.
Al Hussein managed to drive two metres before the ute stalled, and he felt the vehicle moving to the left and he lost control.
His two friends could not swim and they either fell or jumped from the ute as it was swept downstream by the fast-moving waters.
Their bodies were found days later having been carried up to two kilometres from the Preston Creek causeway near Goulburn in southern NSW.
“In my opinion, the dangers were quite evident,” Judge Baly remarked today while sentencing Al Hussein to a 10-month intensive corrections order, 350 hours of community service, and a two-year driving disqualification.
An ICO is considered by the courts to be a prison sentence served in the community under strict supervision.
“It was dark, the weather was bad, some roads were closed, it had been raining, at times heavily, the causeway was flooded and the water was flowing.
“Mr Al Hussein had not drunk alcohol or used drugs and he must have been alive to these conditions. He proceeded notwithstanding these obvious and significant risks.”
The judge said, in her view, Al Hussein had been overconfident in the ute and his own ability to navigate the situation.
“Further, it was highly negligent to have two passengers on the tray of the ute knowing that they could not swim and would be directly exposed to the elements.”
Judge Baly said there had been no rush to cross the causeway to get to Al Hussein’s hobby farm a few minutes away when he decided to drive into the floodwaters.
“The offender was not exercising the degree of care that a reasonable and prudent driver would have exercised in the conditions that prevailed.”
He had been found not guilty of manslaughter and dangerous driving causing the deaths after a trial in Goulburn District Court in February.
The judge said Al Hussein was completely devastated and deeply remorseful over the deaths of his two friends and would have to live with what he had done for the rest of his life.
Al Hussein and another man who were in the cab of the ute were able to escape through the car windows and swim to safety before watching their terrified friends disappear into the darkness.
Al Hussein walked for almost an hour trying to get phone reception after the accident before calling triple zero pleading for help.
“Please help, please help. There’s two people dying,” he told the operator.
“They went. They’re gone. We lost them. I wish we could see them.”
