Christopher Joannidis, 30, drove into a Nissan Navara ute with five passengers inside, pushing it into the path of a milk tanker at a notorious intersection in Victoria’s north in April 2023.
He had been stopped by police and given a ticket for speeding 118km/hr in a 100km/hr zone about 45 minutes before the three-vehicle crash.
Less than one minute after driving away from officers, Joannidis ignored rumble strips and warning signs as he sped through the intersection of Labuan Road and the Murray Valley Highway in Strathmerton.
The ute’s driver Deborah Markey, 62, her dog Sophie, and four Taiwanese farm workers staying at her home – Zhi-Yao Chen, Pin-Yu Wang, Wai Yan Lam and Hsin-Yu Chen – were all killed instantly.
Joannidis, who has pleaded guilty to five counts of dangerous driving causing death, had his bail revoked when he faced the County Court in Melbourne in November.
At that hearing he faced milk tanker driver Andrew McClusky and the grieving families of his five other victims, where they divulged the trauma they had endured since the crash.
“A motor vehicle can be a lethal weapon in the wrong hands,” McClusky, who was also injured in the crash, told the court.
Dangerous driving causing death is an offence which must receive a sentence of imprisonment unless defence lawyers prove the accused qualifies for an exemption.
Defence barrister Paul Smallwood argued Joannidis should not be jailed because of his psychiatric conditions and asked for the hearing to be adjourned to today, when a psychiatrist will be called.
