Marayong crash inquest: Survivors blamed each other after police pursuit
Two survivors of a gruesome crash in Sydney’s west which left three women dead after a police pursuit later blamed each other as being the driver, a court has heard.
Police & Courts
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The two survivors of a gruesome car crash that killed three women during a police pursuit later blamed each other as being the driver, a court has been told.
Bianca Goat, Adit Mathang and Roza Mawin, all in their 30s, died after the white Holden Commodore they were passengers in lost control and collided with a power pole at Marayong in Sydney’s west in February 2016.
Lidcombe Coroners Court was told on Monday the three women and two others, John Wol and Asunta Jongkor, had got into the car to take Mr Wol to hospital after a boozy party when police tried to pull them over.
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Counsel assisting Tim Hammond told the court an inquest into the three deaths – which left 13 children without their mothers – would investigate who was behind the wheel during the incident because there was “conflicting evidence about … who got into the driver’s seat”.
Mr Hammond told the court Mr Wol and Ms Jongkor later claimed to investigators each other was the driver.
“In a police interview Mr Wol said couldn’t remember if he was or wasn’t the driver as he was drunk … subsequently he said he wasn’t and that Jongkor was driving … Ms Jongkor said Mr Wol was,” Mr Hammond said.
Mr Wol was charged by police over being the driver of the Commodore during the crash but those charges were later dropped by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the court heard.
Ms Jongkor was never charged over the incident.
Mr Hammond said Ms Mawin was the only person in the car not to have alcohol in her system after the gathering. The others all had high blood alcohol readings.
The lawyer also said Ms Jongkor had later said Ms Goak had stood up in the car and pulled the steering wheel before the car lost control.
The court was told police made the decision to pull over the car after seeing it driving slow and without headlights.
One officer said on radio after the crash in audio played to the court “we’ve got two people on the floor that are dismembered“.
Senior Constable Kaan Sengoz, who was in the police car that tried to pull the Commodore over, told the court he saw a man driving before later seeing him injured in the wreckage.
“It was who I saw initially … when he pulled out in front of me initially,” Senior Constable Sengoz said.
Superintendent Grant Healey said he was met with a gruesome scene when he arrived at the crash site.
“(The car) was severely accident-damaged, it was on its roof, it was pretty much broken in half and you could see clearly into one side of it – it was almost like the side of the car was ripped open,” he said.
The inquest continues.