By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A truck driver from Clyde who ran a red light and fatally crashed into a driver in Corio has been jailed.
Ellyas Bouras, 39, who had no criminal or traffic priors, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to dangerous driving causing death.
Bouras’s 18-tonne Kenworth Prime Mover tipper and trailer went through a red light in a 70km/h zone on Bacchus Marsh Road on the afternoon of Monday 10 January 2022.
Travelling about 65km/h, the truck struck a Toyota Corolla turning right on a green signal from the Geelong Ring Road off ramp.
The car was driven by 64-year-old mother-of-four Nada Stoyanovski, of Bell Park, with her two-year-old granddaughter on board.
Ms Stoyanovski died at the scene, while her granddaughter was airlifted to hospital with minor injuries.
At the crash site, Bouras ran to the car. He said he’d just hung up a call a few seconds before the collision and hadn’t seen the red light.
“I think I just killed someone,” Bouras said, with his head in his hands.
On 6 October, sentencing judge Michael Tinney noted the “horrible” impact on Ms Stoyanovski’s “devastated” family for her loss and the manner of death.
“It was sudden and unexpected, so unnecessary and just so completely avoidable. If only you’d been exercising some care,” Judge Tinney told Bouras.
“(Ms Stoyanovski) shouldn’t have died on this day. And she’s dead because of your driving, Mr Bouras.
“She was obviously much loved and will continue to be much missed.”
In mitigation, Bouras had been a hard-working, “very good and careful” heavy-truck driver for 16 years that “slipped up terribly” in this case. He had not received a demerit point in the past five years.
A married father of two, Bouras was clearly of “excellent character”. His life had also drastically changed since the crash – though nothing like for the Stoyanovskis, the judge noted.
“No one is suggesting you are revelling in this offence. Of course you’re not.
“No one is suggesting you’re a bad man. Plainly you are not.
“However I’m afraid it’s not that unusual to have a person with no criminal history at all before the court for this type of offence.”
Bouras’s early guilty plea, deep remorse and low risk of reoffending was also noted.
Bouras was jailed for up to two years and 10 months. He’ll be eligible for parole after serving 18 months.
He was disqualified from driving for two years.
