Drunk driver kills three friends and gets 20 years in jail
WOULD YOU RISK SPENDING TWENTY YEARS IN JAIL?
We know we shouldn’t, but we do it anyway.
How many of us have succumbed to the temptation to have that one extra drink that we know will put us over the driving limit, then got behind the wheel of a car and driven, hoping there won’t be any roadblocks on the way home?
The harshness of the sentence passed down to a young man from Durban recently may change your mind about ever drinking and driving again. The man, whose drunken actions caused a horrific accident resulting in the deaths of three people, has been left with a 20-year prison sentence and the cancellation of his driving licence.
On the evening of March 28, 2015, after a function at home, 24-year-old Kriesen Moodley allegedly helped himself to the keys of a BMW Cabriolet. The vehicle belonged to a friend and Moodley took it without the owner’s permission. He was driving along Link Road in Chatsworth at a high speed when he crashed into a vehicle containing “gym buddies”, Delon Gurriah, Kovashen Pillay and Denalin Naicker, killing all three people. His actions changed his life forever.
According to Warrant Officer Fred Snodgrass, Moodley, is “the only cause of the accident”, due to his high speed and the fact that he is suspected of being highly intoxicated. Snodgrass adds that he was driving a “very powerful” car, which is able to accelerate to high speeds very quickly. The accident appears to be the result of Moodley ignoring the speed limit and driving too fast, which compromised his ability to safely negotiate a bend in the road.
Magistrate Anand Maharaj, the Durban Regional Court magistrate responsible for the strict ruling, believes that “the time has now arrived for courts to consider the imposition of exemplary and austere sentences to those who show wilful and wanton disregard for the rules of the road”. He referred to such drivers as becoming like “lethal weapons” on the road and spoke of a need for sentences that will “change the mind-set” of such drivers.
Suggestions by Moodley’s defence attorney that the accident was an “isolated incident”, and that Moodley had taken the car “on the spur of the moment” did nothing to lessen the severity of the sentence he passed down. He was also unmoved by the attorney’s insistence that Moodley should be given a lighter sentence due to the fact that not only does he have a child, but that this was his first brush with the law. Instead, he stressed the need for the interests of the victims to be considered and promptly sentenced Moodley to five years on each of three counts of culpable homicide, three years for drunken driving and two years for reckless driving. He also ordered the cancellation of Moodley’s driver’s licence, telling him that “the court needs to not only punish you for what you have done, but deter other like-minded people.”
In response, Moodley continues to plead his innocence, arguing that the sentence was “too harsh” and complaining about being used as a “sacrificial lamb on the altar of deterrence”.
What do you think? Sacrificial lamb or cold-blooded killer?
Words by Kelly-May Macdonald
Source: News24