Constance Beaston fronts court over fatal crash in Wangaratta

A student nurse whose dangerous driving caused the death of a beloved husband and father told a witness at the scene “It’s my fault, I am going to jail”.

The mangled wreck of the Volkswagen Tiguan wagon driven by Adrian Charles Rawlings.

A student nurse whose dangerous driving caused the death of a beloved husband and father told a witness at the scene “It’s my fault, I am going to jail”.

Constance Beaston, 23, fronted the County Court in Wangaratta, having earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving causing death, on Tuesday where the wife of Adrian Charles Rawlings gave a harrowing victim impact statement.

The Hyundai Beaston was driving collided with a Volkswagen Tiguan wagon driven by sales rep Adrian Charles Rawlings on the Great Alpine Rd in East Wangaratta about 5pm on October 29, 2021.

His vehicle rolled multiple times and rested on its roof and Mr Rawlings, of Narre Warren, died at the scene. Beaston held a probationary driving license and was on her way to visit family in Wangaratta at the time.

Witnesses saw Beaston sit next to Mr Rawlings’ car and heard her shout “I am so sorry, I’ve killed him, I’ve killed him.”

She told a witness: “It’s my fault, I am going to jail.’

Police charged Wodonga’s Constance Beaston with dangerous driving causing the death of Adrian Rawlings.

Narelle Rawlings told the court she and Adrian got married in 2000 and decided to foster children, Emily, Ryan and Brodie, after struggling for years to have a family.

On that fateful day, she said her husband left home at 1.18pm to visit his parents and she started panicking by 7pm after failing to hear from him.

“By this time, my parents were at our house. The police car drove past, slowed down and made a U-turn to park in front of our house,” she recalled.

“The rest of the night is a blur, memories that I wish I didn’t have. Our kids were devastated and Brodie didn’t understand why dad would never come home. Can’t the doctors fix daddy, he asked.”

Mrs Rawlings said the role she loved the most in life — that of a wife — had ended and her priority now was her children.

The couple wanted to show their children the world but the idea of holidays without her husband terrified her, Mrs Rawlings said.

“I can no longer work as a nurse, the career I loved, because my memory has been affected by the trauma of losing Adrian, and I am scared of making an error with disastrous consequences,” she said.

“I am constantly in a hypervigilant state, worrying something will happen to me, and leaves my kids as orphans.

“Ask him to make me a coffee before he left, holding a little longer and maybe it wouldn’t have happened and we would still have a life.

“My kids would still have their father and I’d still have my best friend and a soulmate, here where he belongs,” she said.

Beaston will be sentenced on Friday.