By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A driver has been jailed after a two-car ‘drag race’ on Monash Freeway ended in a “catastrophic” crash.
Ahsannullah Rezaie, 22, of Narre Warren South, pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court to negligently causing serious injury to the other driver, dangerous driving and cannabis possession.
Judge Michael O’Connell said the two drivers had left in a convoy from a shisha lounge in Dandenong about 10.30pm on 28 December.
Over an eight kilometre stretch, the pair raced each other at high speed and weaved between traffic on the freeway’s city-bound lanes.
A witness remembered his car shaking “violently” as the pair sped past him on either side. “It felt suicidal,” he told a committal hearing.
“Like speeding into a pack of cars at a rate in which I’d never seen someone hooning before.”
Others estimated speeds of up to 150km/h, at times with one of the drivers tailgating the other.
It came to an end in a roadworks zone with a reduced 80 km/h speed limit, concrete barriers and no emergency lane.
The other driver Sayed Reza Hashemi lost control of his ute, spun across four lanes, crashed sideways into a concrete pillar at the Springvale Road overpass and flipped.
Police estimated Hashemi’s ute started to “yaw” at a speed between 110km/h-129km/h.
Rezaie, who was driving in front, didn’t see the crash. He returned to the scene but didn’t identify himself to police.
On his later arrest at his home, his Camry’s distinctive black decals were found to be removed.
He denied involvement in Mr Hashemi’s crash and told police it was “unfair” that he was charged.
Judge O’Connell said it was not unfair at all. Those racing or hooning needed to understand they would be held responsible for “catastrophic” outcomes.
Rezaie’s driving was a “substantial and operative” cause of Mr Hashemi’s life-threatening injuries and a danger to the public.
Their “long and frightening” drive predictably ended in disaster, Judge O’Connell said.
Mr Hashemi was taken to The Alfred Hospital in a critical condition with significant head injuries. He underwent emergency brain surgery and was in a coma for two weeks.
His front passenger escaped with minor injuries.
Nearly two years on, Mr Hashemi was unlikely to recover full functioning for “many months to years, if at all,” Judge O’Connell noted.
He endures memory loss, mood swings, exhaustion and can’t work as a carpenter or labourer.
“My brain is not the same as it was before,” Mr Hashemi stated to the court.
Born in Afghanistan, Rezaie migrated with family to Australia in 2017. They’ve since lived in Dandenong, Hampton Park and Narre Warren South.
He had passed his VCE despite arriving with little English.
He recently started paid work at a real estate, which significantly helped with his family’s mortgage. It was an achievement for which he was “justifiably proud” of, Judge O’Connell said.
His genuine remorse, youth and lack of mental illness, drug issues nor prior convictions were noted. His rehabilitation prospects were “very good”.
Frequently, young offenders of otherwise good character were involved in such offending, the judge said.
Rezaie was at risk of deportation if jailed for 12 months or more.
He was jailed for six months, followed by a two-year community corrections order.
He was disqualified from driving for two years.
