Here’s why Mark Burns received just five months jail for triple-fatal Yorke Peninsula crash
ANALYSIS: Mark Darren Burns killed three people but may get to serve his short jail term at home — how does that happen? It came down to just a single word.
MANY South Australians will be puzzled as to why Mark Darren Burns will serve just five months’ jail for killing three people by negligent driving.
More will wonder why, having imposed a life sentence of grief upon the Tudhope and Thomas families, he may be eligible to serve that term under home detention.
As with so many things in the law, it all comes down to wording — specifically, the definition of “dangerous”.
After causing the fatal Yorke Peninsula crash in June last year, Burns was charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
A relative newcomer to the criminal calendar, the offence came into law in part because juries were hesitant to convict killer drivers of manslaughter.
As outlined by the Legal Services Commission’s online handbook, those found guilty of that offence face a maximum 15-year jail term.
Legally, “dangerous” means speeding, recklessness, persistently bad driving and intoxication — through alcohol or drugs — or a combination of those factors.
By downgrading the charge, prosecutors effectively said Burns’ actions behind the wheel, though fatal, failed to meet that definition.
Instead they accused him of — and he confessed to — the lesser offence of aggravated driving without due care.
The baseline version of that offence was designed to deal with people whose momentary inattention, from a sneeze to changing radio stations, resulted in a crash.
The aggravated version encompasses cases of excessive speed, drinking, drugs or causing injury or death — but driving that, nonetheless, does not reach “dangerous” in the law’s eyes.
In an instant, Burns’ fortunes changed — he no longer faced 15 years behind bars but a maximum jail term of just 12 months.
His minimum driving ban was slashed to six months, down from 10 years for causing death by dangerous driving.
Burns is not the first fatality driver to benefit from such a deal.
David John Bennett had been disqualified from driving three weeks before he killed cyclist Chris Hudson in March 2010.
He served 23 months’ jail — but only because he had other, outstanding matters wrapped into his sentence.
Adrian O’Daniel killed Troy and Shanae Lyall in 2011 but walked from court with a suspended sentence and 18-month licence disqualification.
William Maxwell Graham avoided jail for killing Malcolm Gollan — but was ordered to maintain his roadside shrine — while motorcyclist Rene Schroeder also bargained a lesser charge.
Most recently, Dianne Jagla received an eight-month licence disqualification for killing her great-nephew, and crippling another driver, in a Yorke Peninsula crash.
Critics of plea bargaining — and there are many — say the drop from death by dangerous driving to driving without due care is too steep.
They argue a 12-month maximum jail term cannot be considered sufficient penalty, nor deterrence, for claiming one life — let alone three.
So far, their calls to change the law have gone unanswered.