A teenager killed on the Bass Highway three years ago was hit by a speeding driver who lost control on worn tyres in heavy rain and crashed head-on into his car, a coroner has found.
Troy Kenny, 18, was driving from Latrobe to Devonport on June 18, 2023, to pick up his girlfriend and go to the cinema.
He had just overtaken a slower car when a Mitsubishi Magna coming the other way lost traction on a downhill stretch, crossed the double centre lines and struck his Ford Falcon.
The other driver, Brodie Michael Rowe, had been seen speeding and overtaking other vehicles before the crash.
Coroner Leigh Mackey said conditions were severe, with winds gusting up to 82km/h, heavy continuous rain and water flowing across the road.
“These factors ought to cause a reasonably prudent driver to take care for their own safety and that of other road users in their proximity by slowing down and driving to the conditions,” she said.
“Mr Rowe failed to drive to the conditions and as a result … he lost control of his vehicle causing the collision and death of Mr Kenny.”
The impact forced the engine and dashboard of Kenny’s car back into where he was sitting.
The car had no airbags and Mackey said it was “unknown” whether they would have saved him.
He was cut free by emergency services and taken to the Mersey Community Hospital with a brain injury he could not survive. He died the next day.
The coroner found nothing in Kenny’s driving contributed to the crash. His toxicology results showed no alcohol or drugs.
Investigators found both rear tyres on Rowe’s car had less than one millimetre of tread and were not legal for use on public roads.
Mackey found Rowe lost control “by reason of the speed at which he was travelling and the presence of water over the section of the Bass Highway immediately prior to the collision”.
Rowe pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.
He was jailed for three years in April 2025, backdated to March 2025 and disqualified from driving for two years after his release.
The stretch of highway was known to pool water in the rain.
After the crash the Department of State Growth, now Building Tasmania, put up extra signs and reduced the speed limit from 110km/h to 80km/h while the road was resurfaced.
The work was finished in February 2025 and the limit was later returned to 110km/h.
