r/australia • u/EdenFlorence • 1d ago
news Teen charged for alleged crashing into crowd of Newcastle Knights supporters
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-03/teen-charged-for-alleged-crashing-into-crowd/107225432599
u/The_Arab_Hoe 1d ago
One of the kids is in an induced coma and a man still critical. Fuck this guy. Throw the book at the dog.
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u/realJackvos 1d ago
Man has been downgraded and is no longer critical little girl is still critical but is now stable.
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u/MrOarsome 1d ago
He’s no longer in a critical condition, but that absolutely doesn’t mean he’s made a full recovery. He will likely have lifelong repercussions from the trauma and injuries, which will impact his life every day. “No longer critical” simply means he’s no longer in immediate danger of dying. There’s still a very long road ahead for him.
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u/bananaa2525 1d ago
Very true. My dad was ‘stable’ after being t-boned and that meant 4 months in icu and 8 months in the wards and rehab hospital. He was stable for the first 3 days then slipped back to critical many times and code blued 4 times over the months. It’s day by day and never an easy ride. He had to learn to walk, talk, swallow, eat, move and write again.
He had zero head injuries (miracle), yet that is the impact from chest trauma alone which is a significantly easier journey than anything that involves the head.
My heart breaks for the victims and family, it’s a long road ahead and their lives are going to be changed forever. Utterly tragic.
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u/realJackvos 1d ago
No doubt there's still a long road ahead for all of the people still in hospital. I wasn't suggesting that he had fully recovered btw he's still in a serious condition and by no means out of the woods yet.
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u/The_Arab_Hoe 1d ago
Very good news. Still hope they throw the book at him.
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u/realJackvos 1d ago
I hope so too. They hit him with 3 counts of each charge and there just happened to be 3 children involved. I don't think that that's a coincidence.
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u/trickshot99 1d ago
I think i saw the little girl has been downgraded! Thank goodness
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u/Observer779 8h ago
Head injuries can be life altering. This guy was apparently already disqualified from driving. Needs to do jail time.
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u/Live_Bumblebee1815 1d ago
God I fucking hate the “let’s do stupid/ loud/ dangerous/ annoying shit in cars” trend this country has
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u/InfernoOfTheLiving 1d ago
I’ve seen the video.
I live adjacent to a roundabout.
This type of display of reckless driving starts at 5am and doesn’t stop.
Reckless driving is now a free for all with road policing delegated to only camera detected offences. This idiot has probably being doing this multiple times per day with no chance of being caught until it all went wrong today.
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u/trowzerss 1d ago
Yeah, we refer to our street as the speedway because of the amount of hooning. We often hear people tearing around the block, through the middle of town, even during the day right past schools, but they know our town is underpoliced so even if you call the cops nothing will happen (they ask you to get footage because they know they're never around enough to catch them themselves, but how are you supposed to get footage of a car that's speeding in the dark? They are speeding down streets with street cams, why don't they use that footage?).
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u/TizzyBumblefluff 1d ago
The street mine comes off is one of the hoon streets. At one point the main culprit who lives in that street spray painted “do a skid” on the road right outside their house. 🤦♀️
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u/trowzerss 1d ago
My former neighbours (thankfully moved out) had a 'bows or burnouts' gender reveal party which ended up with them doing burnouts right in front of our houses while there were hordes of toddlers running around on the nature strip with nothing between them and the street and no adults controlling them. I was just waiting for one of them to be taken out. Cops did nothing despite the giant AI generated banner they had which said 'bows or burnouts' and the rubber all over the street (we gave them the heads up when we saw the sign but of course they didn't respond in time to see anything happen).
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u/Live_Bumblebee1815 1d ago
I have a former friend that would do shit like that and post about it on his Instagram for clout I guess. Couldn’t deal with it anymore so removed him and haven’t spoken in years now
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u/bredaredhead 1d ago
The news report I watched said he was known by police, so probably not his first time doing skids. He's fucked now though.
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u/CcryMeARiver 23h ago
Even better ... he's a disqualified driver - in a beemer with his first name on a vanity numberplate.
Crush it.
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u/Screambloodyleprosy 1d ago
Road Policing isn't delegated to only camera offences.
The pendulum of the courts has swung so far in favour of the accused, Police are scolded and belittled for bring a serious matter before the courts.
I'll reference an speeding incident in Melbourne. A driver was detected at 62km/hr over the speed limit. Not his first offence and also trying to become a Politician.
When the matter was brought before the court, his lawyer argued proper venue and that the offence was closer to court B rather than court A (proper venue).
He got the matter thrown out based on that argument and also had costs awarded.
One of the most unbelievable things about this is that court A is the proper venue. Magistrates court staff accepted charges and on the Magistrates court website it states that matters for court A cannot be heard in court B.
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u/2centpiece 1d ago
I thought this sounded like a Walsh-Buckley special: https://www.afr.com/wealth/people/police-bungle-allows-millionaire-to-escape-speeding-charge-20260220-p5o45w
I especially liked his arguments that it wasn't possible to prove a vehicle was not a heavy vehicle due to the registration extracts not specifying this, even though it's obvious that a Toyota Yaris isn't a heavy vehicle.
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u/mitchy93 1d ago
Wouldn't be surprised if the rear tyres were bald prior to the burnout on the incident
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u/DarKnightofCydonia 1d ago
As someone who grew up there teenagers do this shit in Newcastle all the time. Side effect of everyone in the second largest city in NSW going for their Ls as soon as they hit 16 because of how terrible the public transport is
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u/Latchkey_Wizzard 1d ago
It’s worldwide at this point. Kids are seeing this shite on Tik tok and insta and going out to copy it. Similar stuff happening in UK and America
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u/AgentSmith187 1d ago
I grew up long before Tik Tok and people were doing the same shit back then too.
Doing burnouts and stupid shit in cars is why we have power limits on cars on your Ps and it was problem long before that too.
YouTube wasn't even a thing when this started.
Heck ever sonce V8s have existed someone was doing mad skids
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u/fadetoblack944 1d ago
I swear we need to bring back the ad campaigns with the people having there Pinky's at wanker drivers
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u/vanilla_muffin 1d ago
No one wakes up expecting something like this to happen. Now family members will be in hospital waiting rooms for the night because of a single, stupid decision. A single second can ruin a life, I hope this kid permanently loses their right to drive.
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u/racingskater 1d ago
It feels like the whole thing is amplified. These families should be excited, happy, making their plans to watch tomorrow, talking about their players and dreaming of a premiership. And now they're in hospital waiting rooms, and some are facing possibly the worst outcome, and the game tomorrow is the last thing on their minds.
It always feels unfair when these things happen, but this feels extra unfair.
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u/optimistic_agnostic 1d ago
I dont think we have the mechanism in Australia to ban people for life. Ive only heard of courts banning repeat unlicensed offenders for more than 24months at a time and a judge isnt going to ban an 18 year old for longer than that because all judges care about is coddling the accused and making sure their life isnt impacted too much.
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u/Quick_Bet9977 1d ago
Even then the amount of people who just keep driving around after having their licence banned or suspended is crazy.
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u/Neither-Individual-2 1d ago
Dude going to be looking of his shoulder for a very long time. What the fuck were they thinking. Life ruined in a split second decision. Hope everyone recovers 🙏
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u/IcyMathematician8434 1d ago
Hopefully from prison
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u/thrashmanzac 1d ago
No chance of prison. Over 3 years ago someone deliberately drove into me and crushed me between the front of their car and the back of my partners, like fully tried to kill me. Still going through the court and looking like the DPP will probably let them get off with unintentionally causing injury and criminal damage, just to save some taxpayer funds fighting it for any longer.
If you want to kill someone in Australia, use a car.7
u/--Anna-- 1d ago edited 1d ago
100%. A horrible person in my city decided to seek out meth, and take it. This triggered an altered mental state and amplified some mental health issues they had.
And then they took their car out.
They killed a mutual friend and caused serious injuries to the surviving twin and boyfriend.
1 Year jail time. Because mental health reasons. (Despite this person being co-ordinated enough to source meth, pay for it, and decide to take it on purpose...)
In a stupid alternate reality. I feel we should band a bunch of us together. Take meth outside of the government house while in our cars. And see if laws get changed then. If we kill a bunch of people, it's not our fault right? Ffs.
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u/TheHoovyPrince 1d ago
Unless someone dies i doubt he gets prison.
In a few weeks or months im fully expecting to see "2 year suspended license and community service".
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u/AFlimsyRegular 1d ago
A baby is in a coma with head injuries and multiple broken limbs.
He is going away.
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u/TheHoovyPrince 1d ago
And a woman in Victoria killed a child at a school when she lost control in a roundabout. She didn't go away.
The point is that Australian judges are soft on drivers.
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u/obsolescent_times 1d ago
Yeah but in that case in Vic she got charged with careless driving, because it was thought to be a 'pressed the wrong pedal' situation.
In this case he's been charged with:
- Dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm x3
- Negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm x3
- Cause bodily harm by misconduct x3
So if he gets done on Dangerous occasioning GBH, he could theoretically cop 3-7 years.
There's also a difference between the possible outcomes in Vic vs NSW with regard to the careless driving (Vic) / negligent driving (NSW) level charges. So because this happened in NSW, it potentially has carries a higher penalty (jail time), where it doesn't in Vic (explaining why the previous case resulted in zero jail time).
All things considered, I reckon this guy is more likely to cop actual jail time than not. But yeah it's still very much up in the air and depends on how it all plays out.
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u/TheHoovyPrince 1d ago
Yeah it does seem like NSW and Vic see different outcomes for driving charges.
I just want to stress that i really do hope im wrong and this guy cops jail time. I want nothing more than to see negligent drivers in Australia getting appropriate sentences. Unfortunately i am a bit of a pessimist so that does effect my thoughts on what the end result can be for situations like this.
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u/Crs_s Central Coast, NSW 1d ago
I have a mate who was drink driving and fell asleep at the wheel. He crashed in to another car and the guy broke his leg. He spent a a few years in jail for that and he had a squeaky clean record. This was in NSW too. So I really don't see how the guy at Newy today can injure nearly a dozen people, two of which are in a critical condition, and avoid jail time.
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u/Responsible_Ring_649 1d ago
Especially multiple counts, children, public outrage, the fact he almost drove away, the publicity. Would not be the message they would want to send nationally that such a crime warrants 0 gaol.
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u/Responsible_Ring_649 1d ago
I highly doubt he avoids prison due to the publicity of the trial, his actions especially almost fleeing the scene, his recklessness and showboatery, community wants punishment. He has a ton of aggravating factors and barely if any mitigating factors. Expecting a 10 year sentence with no bail imo. Being reckless in such an event with a mass of people including children, and injuring children in his actions.
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u/TheHoovyPrince 1d ago
I'd love to see a 10 year sentence and I'm sure everyone else would, I just doubt it happens.
I personally see a judge giving a light sentence because he's young and that a harsh sentence would 'affect his possibilities in life'. We've seen judges say the exact same rhetoric for teens and even 18 year olds who did brutal home invasions or carjackings.
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u/I_love_IMUs 1d ago
How's he getting a 10 year sentence?
Maximum for negligent driving causing GBH in NSW is 9 months for a first offence. It's a fucking joke IMO, but that's the law. The only way he's getting 10 is if someone dies.
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u/Responsible_Ring_649 1d ago
He was charged 3 counts of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm which has a higher level than negligent, he has a bunch of aggravating factors and is known to police ie they have dealt with him before so he is not a first time offender. He deserves and needs to cop a large punishment otherwise drivers won't be deterred and there's a legitimate risk of someone else causing another similar accident.
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u/Poptercop 1d ago
Dude will never be welcome here in Newcastle again, that's for sure. Disgraced the whole city.
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u/Unhappy-Parfait3594 1d ago
The amount of people on social media just begging for the background of the driver to be anything but white Australian made me miserable today. People salivating at the thought of using tragedy for their political beliefs.
Awful people.
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u/Critical_Brick3233 1d ago
Sri Lankan name
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u/The_Arab_Hoe 1d ago
Not sure why you're getting downvotes. The guys name is in the article - Indika Bambrick Samarasinghe
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u/maxdacat 1d ago
I would be more interested what his driving record is like. He doesn't seem like somebody with a clean license. Is that why the term "known to police" is being used?
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u/Screambloodyleprosy 1d ago
The car will tell you everything about their driving record. It had different colour doors and panels.
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u/mulletmutt 1d ago
This is a seperate point but while I agree that different coloured panels and doors look dodgy, not everyone with cars like that are bad drivers. Someone t boned me last year and I had to replace my car door with a new one, the colour doesn't match and it drives me crazy but it was either that or have my car written off because it's too old for insurance to warrant fixing.
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u/jacksalssome 1d ago
My mates window stopped winding so we put another color door on it from the wreckers. Car hasn't got come much as a scratch.
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u/Quick_Bet9977 1d ago
Some people on facebook who live near him says he was known to drive like a cunt all the time
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u/mitchy93 1d ago
Red P plates so wouldn't have much of a record before the incident hopefully
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u/5ivepie 1d ago
Bambrick is an Irish / Scottish name.
He’s mixed heritage like the rest of us in this country.
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u/Ok-Nature-4728 1d ago
I think at the end of the day there is a problem where two sides of the political argument will hijack this story. One will say something along the lines of 'this is the problem with immigration' the other will say something like 'the right just want to make it about race'.
Honestly though, the guy is a fuckwit and I hope he rots. I don't care where he is from. But one thing is for sure, him not being white is going to make this a whole other thing then if he was and that political argument isn't going to do anything to help the victims and their families.
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u/racingskater 1d ago
Yep, I cringed when I saw his name because I knew exactly what would happen.
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u/InfernoOfTheLiving 1d ago
Yeah “Bambrick” is Scottish/Irish so probably from one of those orange families that terrorised the Irish in Ireland since the 12th century
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u/HappyNet1994 1d ago edited 1d ago
I found out he was brown by reading that they were investigating to see if it was a potential terrorist attack.
You know that would never have been a consideration if he was a skinny white kid.
So it's not just people, but the media too.
As a white foreigner, I can say that Australia is deeply racist, all the way to its core. The average individual maybe isn't, but the country inherently, is.
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u/Equivalent_Toe3508 21h ago
"I found out he was brown by reading that they were investigating to see if it was a potential terrorist attack."
You saw a photo of him or you made the assumption? That says more about you. He doesn't look obviously non-white anyway.
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u/mitchy93 1d ago edited 1d ago
This isn't a case of boys will be boys or an accident. They chucked a burnout in a clapped out E46 beemer in a super crowded area and lost control into 10 people, including children.
They knew what they were doing and the magistrate will throw the book at them with possible jail time
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u/Major_Excitement5163 1d ago
Tbf the magistrate will probably not throw the book at him or even a small notepad. We'll hear about his good character in court and what he gave to the community then we will hear how remorseful he is and how much this event has had a profound impact on him to live his life differently now. This will mean he just made a silly mistake and serve 3-5 years, out in 2 with good behavior probably
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u/dav_oid 1d ago
Going on past Magistrate's decisions, he will be let off because he 'has a difficult home life' or a 'had a difficult upbringing'...
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u/broadsword_1 22h ago
difficult upbringing
driving around in his personalized BMW at 18
Lol. I'm sure someone here will be able to spin an amazing story of overcoming oppression or something - just can't imagine what it'll be.
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u/Flyerone 1d ago
A bozo doing wheelies in front of a crowd, cashes into said crowd. I'm surprised there was anything left for the police to be honest.
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u/The_Arab_Hoe 1d ago
There's a photo of him circulating around social media showing that he was pretty beat up before cops got to him. Also reports he tried to leg it but locals kept him busy til the police arrived.
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u/DwightsJello 1d ago edited 1d ago
He did. He wasn't going to get far.
There were people saying he was getting egged on by the crowd too. Absolute bullshit. It was a full on family vibe with loads of old people and kids. They thought he was a flog immediately before he lost it.
Edit: fuck me. Reading this thread about his background?? Who gives a fuck. He could be purple and from Narnia, he was an absolute fuckwit who did something really fucking dumb and it ended horrifically. Ffs.
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u/Cat_Man_Bane 1d ago
In the short few second video you can hear someone in the crowd call him a wanker as well
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u/DwightsJello 1d ago edited 1d ago
People were commenting like it was a group of hoons gathered in an industrial estate after dark. It was nothing like that. As you point out, it wasn't encouraged at all.
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u/kratington 1d ago
There were multiple people in another thread that were right there saying that he definitely didnt get egged on, he was getting told off if anything, which may of spurred him on
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u/DwightsJello 1d ago
It wasn't that type of vibe. At all.
The facts are sad and horrible. I'll never understand people wanting to add absolute bullshit tangents on top of that.
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u/Chiron17 1d ago
Is that what he was doing? What kind of flog does that near a crowd? It's dumb enough when they do it on a quiet road or something
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u/AgentSmith187 1d ago
Check out the hostory of Summernats for videos going back to the days of VHS tapes of people doing shit this stupid sadly.
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u/Chiron17 1d ago
What's the deal here? Did he do it deliberately or was he being a dipshit doing burnouts and doughnuts and lose control?
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u/trowzerss 1d ago
Being a dipshit. It's why I have no problem reporting hoons and hope their precious cars get crushed. Sooner or later this shit happens.
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u/Manny77 1d ago
I reckon rather than crush their cars, they get sold off to non-hoons and the money given to any victims of hoon behaviour
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u/trowzerss 1d ago
The ones that get crushed are mostly the hotted up cars which often aren't street legal anyway. those ones shouldn't be resold as they'll just end up with another hoon, most likely. But normal cars, yeah, better off auctioning those ones.
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u/KevinRudd182 1d ago
Burnouts and lost control. Exactly as you can imagine, a bunch of p players and bogans were doing laps around and the endless sea of people were egging them on to do burnouts, so they did. Not that it’s an excuse to endanger other people, but one can see how it happened, everyone is there riding high, adrenaline flowing etc. Just dumb teenage shit.
Then he lost control and went into the crowd.
An idiotic move, one he deserves to pay for deeply, but the mob mentality and racism I’ve seen on socials today is disgusting and those people should also be ashamed of themselves.
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u/fatmarfia 1d ago
Bro was just being a dumb cunt thinking he was driving a mad car.
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u/elrangarino 1d ago
Accidentally clicked on your profile after upvoting but the emotional rollercoaster of this thread and that cactus, wow!
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u/Suspicious_Drawer 1d ago
So a typical Red P Plater showing off. But ABC releasing his name but not the fuckwit that poured hot coffee in a baby's face. What's the difference?
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u/loose_cunt 1d ago
What has ended up with that hot coffee prick?
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u/IntravenousNutella 1d ago
Fled to China, still there.
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u/loose_cunt 1d ago
Still? That was the last I heard a while ago, hopefully China is actually helping or looking to punish him or extradite him.
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u/AuzzieTiger 1d ago
Really disappointing to see people bring race into this. Regardless of the colour of his his skin, he made an atrocious decision to put lives at risk with his behaviour.
Praying for that little girl tonight. Her and the others injured are the most important thing right now.
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u/jurdyshore 1d ago
I’m usually all for second chances, but not with something like this. I genuinely cannot fathom the fucking stupidity of this bloke. In my opinion, he deserves to be sent away for 10 years. Should get 25 if someone dies.
He’s lucky the crowd didn’t turn on him badly after what happened. Absolute flog of a human being in my opinion.
I just hope the old fella and the child pull through. I can’t even imagine how I’d feel if that was my kid. What would possess someone to do that at a round about packed with family’s
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u/christonabike_ 1d ago
The driver of the car that allegedly ploughed into a crowd of Newcastle Knights supporters
Oh, the car did it, huh?
We can't just say "The driver that allegedly ploughed into a crowd of Newcastle Knights supporters". We have to blame the car itself, because it's not like cars are directed entirely by their operator's control inputs or anything...
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u/Red_Mammoth 1d ago
It's currently unknown whether they did this accidently or intentionally. "Ploughed into" can imply direct action, but by putting 'allegedly' before it you have indemnity against a direct accusation that has yet to be legally determined by a court of law. It is far, far easier to sue a news organisation for saying something than it is to sue you or I for a comment, they're simply legally covering themselves. It's been the standard for news organisations for years
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u/MarkusMannheim 1d ago
It's easy (and justified) to get angry at this dickhead.
We should also be angry at a culture that values massive dangerous machines, and laws that allow us to drive vehicles capable of driving twice the speed limit.
Small engines capped at 110 km/h means lighter vehicles, lower risk, less harm to everyone, less damage to roads, lower fuel, infrastructure and insurance costs, etc ...
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u/Bulky_Writer_2244 1d ago
Whenever anyone complains about this country being a nanny state, have a look at comments like this to see why.
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u/MarkusMannheim 1d ago
My comment doesn't reflect any laws, so your comment seems illogical? If anything, I'm arguing for a nanny state that doesn't exist in the slightest.
People who complain about fuel and motoring costs and road casualties without contemplating the broader reasons have stunted reasoning.
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u/RyanPurdler-Penriff 23h ago
What about people wanting to tow caravans or boats? Small engines aren’t going to work there ..
What about EVs ? They’re comparatively around 400kg heavier alongside the same medium sized sedan , have insanely quick acceleration (even small ones) and are silent ..
He lost control at a roundabout - as crazy and reckless and unsafe as his driving was .. If you had a roundabout in the Bathurst 1000 , even professional racing car drivers would be hitting that part of the track at about 70-80km/h …
The only way anyone’s hitting a roundabout over 110km/h would be either - they blacked out / didn’t see the roundabout , or they were suicidal .. Even the latter one I think you’d still flinch at some point and struggle to get much above that speed at a roundabout …
Rapid acceleration would be a bigger problem here that speed , but that point about size and power of engines is kid of moot with EVs now
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u/killertortilla 23h ago
Allegedly crashed? The article headline doesn’t even say that. Why alleged?
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u/SuperCheezyPizza 1d ago
Decades ago, my father told me when I got my licence, if you're going to be a stupid idiot behind the wheel don't when there are other people around or in the car with you. Words I carry to this day, there are some real fucking idiots out there that don't deserve a licence.
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u/AnAnonymousAnomaly_ 1d ago
For those who can't be bothered clicking through:
Indika Bambrick Samarasinghe, 18, has been charged with three instances of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, three instances of negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and three instances of cause bodily harm by misconduct, according to court documents viewed by the ABC.