Taxi driver Amanpreet Singh given suspended sentence for crash which killed Manjit Dhadwal, angering victim’s family

An elderly man killed by a careless taxi driver while crossing Anzac Highway had lost his sister to a negligent driver only three years earlier. The double tragedy has left the victim’s family stunned.

When a taxi driver who hit and killed a man on Anzac Highway received a suspended sentence on Friday, it was an all-too familiar experience for the victim’s family.

Amanpreet Singh – who was behind the wheel of the taxi when Manjit Dhadwal was killed in late 2017 – was yesterday sentenced to three months in prison for aggravated driving without due care, but had the sentence suspended.

In 2016, Mr Dhadwal’s family watched on as a driver who killed Mr Dhadwal’s sister, Harvinder Kaur, also received a suspended sentence.

Manjit Dhadwal (right) with his sister Harvinder Kaur, both whom died in separate crashes involving drivers later found to be negligent. Both drivers received suspended prison sentences.

Amanpreet Singh was found not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving but convicted of driving without due care. Picture: Gabriel Polychronis

Outside court on Friday, Mr Dhadwal’s nephew Bick Singh, the son of Mrs Kaur, said he was disappointed by the leniency Judge Barry Beazley extended to the driver.

“(The sentencing) has put us in a bit of a daze,” Mr Singh said.

“When someone is removed from your life because of negligence, it is very hard to find closure.

“Whatever punishment is not going to bring my uncle back, but something like deportation may have helped. The Adelaide Indian community is very tight-knit where many of us will be crossing paths in the future. Adelaide is a very small town.”

Mr Dhadwal, who came to Adelaide in the 1980s, ran a popular restaurant out of Hawker’s Corner in the city.

“He was not just my uncle but my best friend,” Bick Singh said.

“He has left a big hole in the family and in the community.”

Mr Dhadwal was crossing Anzac Highway in Kurralta Park at 10.45pm on November 22, 2017, when he was hit by the taxi travelling in the inner lane.

Mr Dhadwal died at the scene. He was later found to have a blood alcohol reading of 0.29 per cent.

Singh was found not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving, but Judge Beazley ruled that he had driven without due care.

Bick Singh, the nephew of Manjit Dhadwal who died in a crash in 2017, speaks outside court. Picture: Mitch Mott

However, he said the 32-year-old had shown remorse during interviews with police and while in court.

He placed Singh on a one-year good behaviour bond.

Singh, who continued driving taxis for two years after the crash, also had his licence suspended for six months.

Mrs Kaur died in a crash caused by a Taiwanese tourist near Nuriootpa in 2014.

The other driver, Sung-Hung Ko, was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving, but also had his prison sentence suspended.

Harvinder Kaur was killed in a car crash on the Sturt Highway in August 2014.

Sung-Hung Ko, the driver responsible for killing Mrs Kaur, received a suspended jail term in the District Court. Picture: Greg Higgs