A serial drink-driver who crashed head-on into a parked car and critically injured his unrestrained passenger has been jailed for up to six years.
Eric Kanyi elicited a 0.288 blood-alcohol reading soon after crashing his girlfriend’s Kia hatch with three passengers in Forest Hill on 10 February 2024.
At the time, his own car was fitted with an alcohol interlock, and he was subject to a zero-alcohol driving restriction from a previous drink-driving conviction.
The 32-year-old father-of-two pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to charges including negligently causing serious injury and reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
In sentencing on 25 June, Judge Andrew Palmer noted the victim’s sister pleaded with the group of men that he was unfit to drive before the fateful crash.
He nevertheless drove off with them and a backpack of drinks from her Hampton Park home about 8pm.
Later that night, Kanyi sped in a “highly erratic and dangerous fashion” on Monash Freeway near Springvale Road, Judge Palmer said.
He cut across traffic at high speed, tailgated, dangerously braked in front of another vehicle and had to regain control of the Kia several times.
About 11.20pm, he drove down a no-through residential street in Forest Hill, turned around at the end and sped back down the street.
Kanyi was thought to have braked and veered about a second before the Kia struck a parked sedan head-on with a “loud bang”,
Even still, his estimated speed at impact was 74 km/h – the force crushing the sedan 15 metres onto a footpath.
The victim, a 26-year-old Hallam disability worker, had been in the back seat without a seatbelt.
His head was likely to have struck the car’s driver-side B pillar, causing severe brain trauma.
He was taken to hospital in an unconscious, critical condition, put in an induced coma and underwent brain surgery.
The family refused when asked if they wanted to switch off his life-support.
The man remains severely impaired – suffering seizures, communicating by eye gaze and a Yes/No card, requiring to be tube-fed and without functional use of arms or legs.
It was hard to imagine worse injuries, other than dying, Judge Palmer stated. And the victim’s condition was unlikely to improve.
To her “enormous” stress, the victim’s sister took primary responsibility for the victim as well as supporting their family overseas. She worked longer hours to cover the cost of his care.
Judge Palmer said the seriousness of the “grossly negligent” Kanyi’s offending demanded a jail term.
Kanyi’s blood-alcohol levels of 0.288 rendered him “incapable of having proper control” of a vehicle, according to a forensic expert.
He had been convicted for drink-driving with high blood-alcohol readings in 2015 and 2016.
But the judge also sought to support “excellent” rehabilitation prospects by setting a shorter non-parole period.
Since Kanyi’s arrest, he’d taken significant steps to reform – including counselling, and courses in men’s behaviour change and substance addiction.
A “deeply remorseful” Kanyi was said to have since completely stopped drinking and drug-taking and been working hard to support his family.
Born in Kenya, the Australian ‘permanent-resident’ faces possible deportation.
Kanyi was jailed for six years, eligible for parole in three years.
His driving licence was disqualified for four years, and subject to a two-year alcohol exclusion period after his release.
