Family of highway hit and run victim Rian Strathdee, 6, describe torturous 20-year wait for justice
The Strathdee family waited 20 years to confront their son’s hit- and-run killer in court. On Friday, they revealed just how painful that journey had been.
Police & Courts
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The family of a six-year-old boy who died in a fatal hit-and-run crash on a NSW highway in 2004 has told a court their ongoing grief at losing a son and brother has been further compounded by the 20-year wait to bring his killer to justice.
Laurie Strathdee and his wife Jasmine Pagyet were returning home to the Blue Mountains on the evening of November 6, 2004 when their Subaru station wagon was rear-ended by a Kenworth truck while entering the Hume Highway at Sutton Forest.
The impact of the crash caused the Subaru to spin out and roll down an embankment until it landed on its roof.
The couple’s six-year-old son, Rian, was killed in the crash, while Mr Strathdee and another boy in the vehicle were severely injured.
The truck driver, Allan Michael Dyson, failed to stop and assist the family, instead fleeing the scene of the crash.
He later moved to Queensland and remained at large for almost two decades until he was arrested in October 2022, extradited to NSW and charged.
After repeatedly denying any involvement in the crash, Dyson eventually admitted he was behind the wheel during a criminal trial in Goulburn District Court in August.
A jury took less than two hours to return guilty verdicts on one count of dangerous driving occasioning death and two counts each of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and causing bodily harm by misconduct when driving.
During a sentencing hearing before Judge Ross Hudson on Friday, Dyson sat quietly as Mr Strathdee and Ms Pagyet delivered moving victim impact statements in which they described their son as a “gorgeous child, full of life”.
“[He had] a wonderful sense of humour and a love of the absurd,” Mr Strathdee said.
“At the same time, Rian was a very gentle and sensitive soul and loved the natural world and all of its creatures.”
Both he and Ms Pagyet said the trauma of not knowing who was responsible for their son’s death for close to two decades had left its undeniable mark on them.
“I want to make a particular mention of the impact of hit and run crashes,” Ms Pagyet said.
“They’re particularly cruel for victims, adding another layer of distress to the enormous grief from the death of our child.
“It messed up our family because there was always an unfinished part to this terrible story.
“Our family and I will never understand how a truck driver could leave the scene of a fatal and tragic crash and only admit to being the driver at the time of a criminal trial almost 20 years later.”
Mr Strathdee said the guilty verdict against Dyson would help mend their broken hearts but they would never heal completely.
“We finally have an answer …finally, some accountability for the person responsible for Rian’s death,” he said.
“But only after 20 years of cowardice, 20 years of denial, 20 years of trying to find an answer and 20 years of holding our pain in a box.”
Prosecutor Nerissa Keay called for Dyson to receive a lengthy jail sentence, telling the court the case was a serious example of dangerous driving in circumstances where Dyson ought to have been able to avoid the collision if he’d been driving safely.
Dyson, who has already spent two years behind bars on remand, will be sentenced on November 22.
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