A Sydney truck driver found guilty of dangerous driving causing death after running over a 16-year-old boy has been spared jail time.
In delivering his verdict in the District Court on Friday, judge John Pickering told George Kyriakidis when he finally gets his licence back “don’t ever, ever take a shortcut home”.
In August 2018, Kyriakidis was driving his 11-tonne tipper truck home and had slowed down almost to a crawling pace near a busy Bankstown street junction before making an illegal right-hand turn. At the same time, Jason Nguyen had run from a nature strip diagonally across lanes of traffic to get to his home in a street nearby, also making an illegal crossing.
Judge Pickering said like many great tragedies in life, two unfortunate things happened at the same time. The judge added that Kyriakidis made a “selfish” and “quick decision” to break the law but had no reasonable expectation a pedestrian would be crossing at that section of the road at that time.
Over a six-day trial, Kyriakidis had pleaded not guilty but was convicted by a jury after more than a day of deliberations.
Kyriakidis is to serve a community corrections order for two years, along with other conditions including supervision from Bankstown Community Corrections centre.
In a victim impact statement, Nguyen’s mother said her family’s life had forever changed since his death, and she still cries with pain which still feels so large.
She hopes to “protect her remaining loves ones as I failed to protect my late son”.
“[I] still cry with pain which still feels so large.”
Kyriakidis acknowledged his life had been permanently altered by his decision to take a shortcut home that day, and was already serving “a greater personal punishment” than any other he could be brought to bear.
Sourced By: Seven News
