A young dad was “extremely intoxicated” and driving at 118km/h in a 70km/h zone when he crashed and died in far north-west Tasmania, a coroner has found.
Vincent Curtain, 26, a dairy farm manager and father of a two-year-old son, was killed on West Montagu Road near Woolnorth overnight on January 30, 2025.
Coroner Olivia McTaggart found he had played golf and drunk beer with friends at the Smithton Golf Club before going to a mate’s house at Montagu.
There, he drank five cans of premixed whisky and cola.
Just before midnight, Curtain decided to drive home and turned down his friend’s offer of a lift.
He was due to fly to Melbourne early that morning for a friend’s wedding.
A passing motorists came across the crash and called Triple Zero (000) at 4:38am.
Police arrived at 5:22am and found Curtain’s Mitsubishi Triton on its roof in roadside scrub. He was lying nearby and had died.
Crash investigators found he lost control on a left-hand bend. The ute crossed both lanes, hit a drainage culvert and became airborne. It then struck a pole and flipped.
Curtain was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the vehicle.
A partly drunk bottle of bourbon was found inside the ute. Tests showed his blood alcohol was between 0.160 and 0.238.
McTaggart found the death was accidental, caused by speed, alcohol and not wearing a seatbelt.
“Mr Curtain’s tragic and preventable death was caused directly by his decision to drive whilst extremely intoxicated,” she wrote in her findings.
“Despite it being widely known in the community that there is a high risk of death or severe injury in deciding to drive in such circumstances, lives continue to be lost in the same way.”
