Driver sentenced after fatal crash claims five lives at Strathmerton

Joannidis, who now lives in the Melbourne suburb of Glen Iris, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne County Court to five counts of dangerous driving causing death in November, with a further plea and sentence being heard on Thursday, January 23.

Five people were killed in the April 20, 2023, crash at the intersection of the Murray Valley Hwy and Labuan Rd at Strathmerton.

Joannidis, the driver of a Mercedes C180 sedan, was travelling north on Labuan Rd when he failed to give way at the intersection with the Murray Valley Hwy, and crashed into a Nissan Navara ute travelling west on the highway.

The Nissan spun out of control and into the path of a milk tanker, killing all five people and a dog in the Nissan.

Cobram’s Debbie Markey, 62, and four international working holiday visa workers — Taiwan’s Pin-Yu Wang, 23, Hsin-Yu Chen, Zih-Yao Chen, 25, and Hong Kong’s Wai Yan Lam, 21 — all died in the crash.

The court heard the lead-up to the intersection on Labuan Rd had two ‘reduce speed’ warning signs, three sets of rumble strips and warning signs for them, and two ‘intersection ahead’ signs.

There was also a hump in the road about 39m from the intersection.

The court also heard Joannidis had been stopped and fined by police earlier for speeding at 118km/h on Labuan Rd.

Police body-worn camera footage played to the court from that stop showed one of the officers telling Joannidis there had been “nine killed in 18 months” in the area “basically because people don’t see ‘give way’ signs or ‘stop’ signs”.

He had only been released from that stop one minute before the fatal crash occurred.

The court heard Joannidis’ Mercedes was travelling at at least 27km/h at the time of the crash.

In sentencing Joannidis, Judge Gavan Meredith acknowledged the victim impact statements of family and friends of the four international workers who died, as well as one by Debbie Markey’s son.

“They are a tragic testimony to the profound and ongoing impact (of the crash),” he said.

He also acknowledged that the truck driver and his wife, who also provided victim impact statements, were “deeply affected”.

“My role in sentencing does not place a value on the life of those who died or the pain and suffering of those left behind,” he said.

The judge said that while he accepted that the consequences of Joannidis’ actions were “unintentional”, he had been driving dangerously by failing to keep a proper look out.

“It is underpinned by the fact you were warned moments earlier about people going through ‘give way’ signs and ‘stop’ signs,” he said.

Judge Meredith accepted that a hump in the road 40m before the intersection that obscured it from view, combined with the 100km/h speed limit, made it a “dangerous intersection”.

However, he said the warning he received from police, the warning signs for the intersection, and three sets of rumble strips “would mean a person keeping a proper look out would know an intersection was imminent”.

Under Victorian law, anyone found guilty of dangerous driving causing death must be imprisoned, unless they can prove a special reason to keep them out of jail.

Judge Meredith spoke of evidence by forensic psychiatrist Dr Andrew Carroll that Joannidis suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dr Carroll said Joannidis had “severe” OCD symptoms that were worsening, and were likely to deteriorate in custody.

He said they focused around concerns with contamination and infection, and that Joannidis washed his hands more than 20 times a day.

While Judge Meredith said while he accepted that Joannidis’ impaired mental functioning would make prison more difficult for him, he did not think that anything other than a prison sentence was appropriate.

He declared that the 59 days Joannidis had spent in pre-sentence detention be counted as time already served on his sentence.

Joannidis’ driver’s licence was also cancelled for three years.