Surinder Singh now says it was the worst decision of his life.
Surinder, a 32-year-old Indian National, got behind the wheel and drove to a nearby bottle shop while more than three times over the limit late on the night of November 5, 2022.
With his close friend and housemate, 27-year-old victim Jujhar Singh, in the front seat, Surinder aggressively and erratically weaved in and out of traffic hitting speeds of 130km/h on Main Road at Tighes Hill.
And eight seconds after his Hyundai sedan raced past an RBT station on the opposite side of the road, the car crested a bridge over the railway corridor and careered straight into a power pole outside The Royal Oak Hotel at Tighes Hill.
The impact ripped the car in half, snapped the front passenger seat and Jujhar was ejected from the wreckage, suffering multiple fatal injuries.
But Surinder's terrible decision making wasn't done.
Suffering only minor injuries, he freed himself from the car and began telling anyone who would listen that it was his mate who had been driving.
Despite the obvious disparity in injuries and the "massive damage" done to the passenger side of the vehicle, Surinder tried desperately to pin the crash on his dead mate in a cowardly attempt to avoid responsibility.
"I begged him not to drive due to having a few drinks," Surinder told paramedics.
He later elaborated on his lie when speaking to investigators.
"I told him don't drive," Surinder told police. "It's not important enough to leave the house but he said we needed food. "I told him: 'no we are drunk we can't go'... and he told me to come with him and I went and was sitting in the passenger seat."
He told them Jujhar had lost control of the car, "cos he was over speed, I was sitting beside him and I said: 'please, go slow'."
On Friday, Judge Ian Bourke, SC, said those lies showed that while the decision to drive was a spontaneous one, Surinder was clearly aware that he was too drunk to get behind the wheel and he had been driving dangerously.
Surinder had told a psychologist he "panicked" when he spotted the RBT and fled because of a history of his people being oppressed and targeted by police in his native India.
"I do not accept the suggestion that the crash was due to or contributed to by the offender observing an RBT unit," Judge Bourke said. "I am satisfied it was the product of his choice to drive while knowing he was impaired by alcohol and the manner and speed of his driving."
Judge Bourke said Surinder was so intoxicated and driving so dangerously that he had effectively abandoned all responsibility, calling it a "grave example" of a case of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death.
He jailed Surinder for a maximum of six years, with a non-parole period of three years and ten months, making him eligible for parole in 2026.
