A coroner has handed down his investigation into a fatal crash on the Tasman Highway at Mornington four years on from the tragic incident.
On Friday, Coroner Simon Cooper said Blair Thomas Bailey was both speeding and ‘most likely’ under the influence before the crash that claimed the life of his girlfriend Minunyurra Wanita Lavinia Brown-West in 2020.
Brown-West, 19, passed away in the Royal Hobart Hospital on April 9, 2020, after sustaining critical injuries in the crash on March 25, 2020.
Cooper’s investigation found that Bailey was speeding toward Hobart at approximately 122km/h in a 110km/h zone when his vehicle left the road and collided with a large eucalyptus tree.
“Several witnesses described seeing the Holden suddenly veer to the left, for no apparent reason,” Cooper said, adding there was “no obstruction or obstacle that required Bailey to manoeuvre the car as he did”.
Motorists stopped to help before emergency services extracted an unconscious Brown-West from the vehicle and rushed her to the Royal Hobart Hospital, where she later died from her injuries weeks later.
Bailey was seriously injured and remained in hospital for a lengthy period, during which he “refused to speak to investigators about the circumstances of the crash”.
Cooper said he had “clear evidence” from Bailey’s mother that he was “under the effect of a substance” prior to getting behind the wheel that morning, but said an analysis of his blood after the crash found no drugs or other illicit substances.
He said Bailey was a known regular user of nitrous oxide “nangs”, a substance that cannot be detected in blood through toxicological analysis.
“I suspect Bailey may well have been under the influence of nitrous oxide in the immediate lead up to the crash,” Cooper said.
Cooper said there was “no evidence” Bailey applied his brakes after leaving the highway or made any steering inputs indicating an attempt to collide with the tree.
“I cannot exclude as a reasonable hypothesis that the crash which killed Ms Brown-West was the result of a deliberate act on Bailey’s part,” he said.
“Nonetheless, the state of the evidence does not allow me to reach an affirmative conclusion in that respect, particularly having regard to the standard of satisfaction required by Briginshaw.”
“In this case Bailey was charged by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) with causing Ms Brown-West’s death by negligent driving. However, the DPP later withdrew that charge, apparently having reached the view that a successful prosecution of Bailey was unlikely.”
“I convey my sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Ms Brown-West.”
