A woman has walked free from court with a $600 fine after hitting her sister with a car door following an argument and leaving her to die on the road.
Asyai Luk, 24, pleaded guilty to downgraded charges of careless driving and being a learner driving without supervision over the November 2022 crash.
She pulled up in her mother’s black Dodge to a home in Melbourne’s west and got out to ask the resident to call police as she was being attacked by her older sister, Anong.
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Luk, who was aged 22 at the time, returned to the car and threw some clothing at her sister, who got out but held onto the passenger door.
She then accelerated forward one car length, while her sister clung to the door and lost her grip as she was thrown face forwards into another car.
Luk drove off, briefly stopped and then left the scene as her sister was lying on the road.
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Anong died in hospital later that evening.
Prosecutors initially charged Luk with dangerous driving causing death, and failure to stop and render assistance, but those were downgraded to the two summary offences in June.
County Court Judge Kellie Blair found Luk’s offending was “momentary and unintended” as she decided not to convict the 24-year-old woman.
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She said Luk was unaware her sister was at the car door when she accelerated forward and took into account there had been an argument of sufficient severity to cause her to ask a person for help.
“To be clear, I am not sentencing you for having caused the death of your sister, rather it is one of the consequences,” she said.
She fined Luk $600 and suspended her learner’s permit for nine months.
The suspension was backdated to her arrest in 2022, meaning she will be allowed back on the roads as a learner driver.
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