By Cam Lucadou-Wells
An ice-addled truck driver who hardly slept for days before fatally running down four police officers in a freeway emergency lane has been jailed for up to 22 years.
Mohinder Bajwa Singh, 48, of Cranbourne pleaded guilty to four counts of culpable driving causing the death of Victoria Police officers Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Constable Glen Humphris, Senior Constable Kevin King and Constable Joshua Prestney.
He also pleaded guilty to three counts of trafficking illicit drugs – ice, cannabis and 1,4-butanediol.
Without braking, Singh’s prime mover ploughed into two parked police vehicles and Richard Pusey’s intercepted Porsche in the Eastern Freeway emergency lane about 5.36pm on 22 April 2020.
In sentencing, Supreme Court judge Paul Coghlan said “chilling” dashcam footage showed the police officers had “no hope” as they stood next to their vehicles.
Their deaths were “entirely unnecessary” and “should have been avoided”.
“Their deaths were caused by you,” Justice Coghlan told Singh on 14 April.
In the days before the crash, Singh used and trafficked drugs, spoke often of being stalked by witches and stick figures, and took little time to rest.
He was so impaired on ice he was incapable of properly controlling a vehicle at the time.
At most, he rested for just five hours in the 72 hours before the crash.
His level of sleep deprivation was equivalent to driving with a 0.3 blood-alcohol reading.
Justice Coghlan noted Singh’s mental health issues including a meth-induced psychosis at the time.
But Singh still knew he shouldn’t have been driving under fatigue and the influence of ice.
He knew that he was “doing the wrong thing” – and the decision to drive was his.
His proposition that he’d acted out of a fear of losing his job was “illusory” and “selfish”.
Hours before the crash, an associate was told by Singh that “the witches are coming and we have to leave.”
“I had never seen anyone as drug f***ed in my life,” the associate later told police.
“He hadn’t slept for eight days”.
About 4.30am that morning, Singh told his son that “a witch was messing with his head, that a witch was following him, that a witch was pulling him towards her”.
Before Singh set out on the fateful journey, a work colleague told Singh’s supervisor at Connect Logistics’ depot in Abbotts Road Dandenong South that Singh shouldn’t be driving.
The supervisor, who was a lay pastor, spoke and prayed with Singh before Singh reluctantly agreed to deliver a load to Thomastown.
The supervisor has been charged with manslaughter in relation to the crash.
Justice Coghlan said Singh believed that the prayers made it less likely that the stick figures would return.
He signed a ‘fitness to drive’ form, and left the depot just before 5pm – only stopping to supply ice to an associate in Abbotts Road.
During the next 38 minutes, the truck was observed several times dipping across lanes and into the emergency lane.
Justice Coghlan noted an observer “prophetically” told his mother minutes before the crash: “This dude’s going to f***ing kill someone”.
Singh had not appeared to have reacted or braked until after the crash – despite the activation of the truck’s collision warning system two seconds earlier.
Police found 83 grams of cannabis and 3 grams of meth in the truck, three cannabis plants being grown at his house and 23 diazepam tablets in Singh’s Camry and home.
Singh was taken to hospital and initially deemed unfit for interview. He later told police that he didn’t want to work because he was “sleepy and tired”.
“I can still see them in front of my truck and I tried to slam the brakes on ‘em and I couldn’t stop it, I couldn’t stop it.”
Over the days before, Singh sold and used drugs on several occasions, including a 12-hour bender on ice and 1,4-butanediol with a female in a Dandenong Motel room.
He was observed by some of his drug associates as “off his head”. One of whom told him “he would kill someone if he didn’t get some sleep”.
Justice Coghlan noted Singh reported ghosts and supernatural phenomena since age 5.
From 2016, Singh recommenced smoking, snorting and injecting ice on a daily basis. He took it to stay awake while driving trucks, he said.
He was also reporting seeing lights and dead people such as World War II soldiers, but didn’t report mental health issues during several visits to GPs.
Justice Coghlan said Singh had “some” prospects of rehabilitation.
He also noted the “thoughtful, considerate, powerful and moving” victim impact statements by the police officers’ partners, children, parents, grandparents, siblings and colleagues as well as eyewitnesses.
Many of them delivered them in-person and in front of the culprit.
“We can only hope as a community that as time goes by, some amelioration of their suffering can come about,” Justice Coghlan said.
After the sentence, the officers’ families stated “justice has now been served” but “no amount of punishment can replace the loss of our loved ones and the missing place at our tables that will be felt by us for the rest of our lives”.
They thanked people from across Victoria, Australia and the world for their “outpouring of love”.
“We are consoled by the fact that our four will not be forgotten as we continue to carry them in our hearts.”
Singh, who has served 357 days in pre-sentence custody, was jailed for up to 22 years. The maximum jail term for each culpable driving charge was 20 years.
He will be eligible for parole after 18-and-a-half years.
Singh was disqualified from driving for 10 years.
