Drink-driver who killed sister asks to be allowed back behind wheel

A Queensland mother of two who killed her younger sister while driving drunk has quietly applied to get back behind the wheel, despite having a shocking traffic record.

A Queensland single mother of two who killed her younger sister while driving drunk in an horrific crash has quietly applied to get back behind the wheel, despite having a shocking traffic record for drink-driving and speeding.

Candice Chmieluk, a skincare marketer, from Casuarina on the NSW far north coast, was banned from driving for five years in 2018 after she was convicted of dangerous driving causing death following the crash at Palm Beach in May 2016.

The now-35-year-old was on a suspended drivers licence for speeding and drink driving, and was four times over the legal blood-alcohol limit, recording 0.202 per cent, and speeding when she lost control of her four-wheel drive and smashed into a light pole on Thrower Drive.

The impact ripped the Jeep in half, before the wreckage burst into flames.

Chmieluk was dragged to safety by bystanders but Sammy-Jo was killed on impact.

The crash site was only 2km down the road from the Currumbin Surf Lifesaving Club where Ms Chmieluk and her 24-year-old sister had spent the afternoon of May 29 drinking and having lunch.

The scene of the crash in May 2016

A patron confiscated Ms Chmieluk’s keys to prevent her from driving, but she ultimately drove off.

Prior to crashing, the car had become airborne after hitting a speed bump, had hit a concrete wall, driven on to a footpath, median strip and traffic island, run over a sign, swerved off the road and almost collided with another car.

In May 2018 Ms Chmieluk was sentenced to five years prison, suspended after three months, after she pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death while adversely affected by alcohol.

On Monday the mother to seven-year-old twins applied to the District Court in Southport to overturn the driving disqualification.

Ms Chmieluk told the court in her affidavit that she needs her licence to drive her twins to after-school social and sporting events, and to attend weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Ms Chmieluk states in her court documents that if she relies on public transport it takes her hours to travel because buses only run hourly to Tweed Heads from her home.

She also states that a driver’s licence would allow her to boost her earnings as a self-employed “content creator”.

Sammy-Jo Chmieluk

She estimates she loses $2400 a month in earnings due to her inability to pick up more projects by visiting the office of her client, skincare company MooGoo.

Ms Chmieluk’s list of traffic violations runs to four pages.

She filed her four-page Queensland Police Service traffic history in court as part of her application to get back on the road.

Her record also reveals she committed a number of offences prior to the crash that killed her sister.

“I am disgusted in myself for how many speeding infringements I have,” she said in her statement four years ago.

“I know that I will have to continue living with the consequences of my decision every day of my life,” she wrote in her affidavit filed in court on Monday.

“I will never be able to forgive myself for what happened to my sister and could never drink and drive again.”

Ms Chmieluk also filed in court the affidavit she swore in 2018 for her sentencing hearing in which she says she was ashamed she decided to drive home after “binge drinking” at the Currumbin SLSC.

Candice Lee Chmieluk outside Southport court

“I cannot explain why I did (drive), I know that I could have caught an Uber and have done so on previous occasions,” she says in the 2018 statement.

“I know now how high my alcohol reading was, which has disgusted me.

“But drive is what I did. I decided to binge drink and then I decided to get into my car and drive home. I chose to do that. I have no memory of making the decision and that is difficult to come to terms with, but I know that for some extraordinary reason, I decided to do it and as a consequence, I killed my sister,” she says in the statement.

“I believe that my binge drinking led to the commission of this offence and the death of my sister, Sammy-Jo,” she wrote.

She says she does not remember anything after 4.30pm when she was with her sister at the club and her sister brought a drink to her table.

“My first memory afterwards is being wheeled down the corridor of the Gold Coast University Hospital,” she states.

She says she learned Sammy-Jo had died in the crash when her father Gregory phoned her while she was in hospital.

Ms Chmieluk says in court documents that she is willing to speak to other drivers at the Queensland transport offender program if she is able to drive again.

The case is due in court on March 11.