Shujaat Bahrami sentenced to suspended 19-week prison term for 2016 road crash in Stockwell that killed child, injured five more

He killed one child and left five more injured and traumatised in a road crash but, thanks to a plea bargain, this man has walked from court with a suspended 19-week prison term.

Shujaat Bahrami’s prison term has been suspended. Source: Facebook.

• Home detention bail for driver accused of causing fatal crash
• Driver in fatal Stockwell crash was ‘on wrong side of the road’
• Stockwell fatal crash driver ordered to stand trial
• One dead, five injured – but maximum 12 months for driver

A man who killed one child and left five more injured and traumatised in a road crash has been given a suspended 19-week jail term, and been banned from driving for 18 months.

On Friday, the District Court spared Shujaat Bahrami an immediate prison term for his careless, fatal driving north of Adelaide almost three years ago.

In sentencing, Judge Sydney Tilmouth said his ability to punish Bahrami was limited due to the plea bargain he had struck with prosecutors, reducing the charges against him.

“It’s not apparent why additional, aggravated charges relating to the injuries suffered by other passengers in the cars were not laid,” he said.

Shujaat Bahrami

“But, as a matter of law, the court is constrained to disregard any circumstances of aggravation that are not before it.”

Bahrami, 44, from Dandenong in Victoria, was originally charged with one count of causing death, and three counts of causing harm, by dangerous driving.

He was behind the wheel of a car that collided head-on with another vehicle on Duck Pond Rd, Stockwell, in October 2016.

Sonia Ewaz Ali, 8, died in the crash while her mother, Gul Bekht Rajab Ali, and two other children suffered abdominal injuries.

The occupants of the other car — a man, woman and their children aged 6, 3 ½ and 15 months — sustained non-life-threatening injures and ongoing emotional trauma.

However, Bahrami struck a plea bargain that saw him confess to the lesser charge of driving without due care, causing death.

Last month, the court heard prosecutors could not prove how long he had been on the wrong side of the road and, therefore, that his driving met the legal definition of “dangerous”.

On Friday, Judge Tilmouth said Bahrami had clearly been in the wrong.

“This was a head-on collision that occurred on a crest and on a slight curve of the road,” he said.

“At the point of impact, you were driving on the wrong side of the road.

“The damage to both cars indicates you were positioned completely on the wrong side of the road.”

He said Bahrami had moved in with, and become a full-time carer for, Ms Ali and her surviving children while continuing to support his own wife and children in Pakistan.

While Ms Ali had forgiven him, and continued to support him, Judge Tilmouth said the driving could not be excused.

“This was a gross departure from the standard of due care required of all drivers,” he said.

Follow @SeanFewster