Court: Matthew Dyer, Emanuel Kur, Nathan Cusbert jailed for dangerous driving causing death

Booze and driving without a full licence were common themes that featured prominently in the actions of drivers who ended up killing their friends and best mates.

Booze and driving without a full licence were common themes that featured prominently in the actions of drivers who ended up killing their friends and best mates.

What followed was the rigmarole or getting through courts which culminated in them paying a heavy price for their stupidity and the realisation they will spend a long time away from their loved ones.

Matthew Dyer

One such driver was Mathew Dyer who copped 10 years and three months in jail for killing his friend Nicole Woollard while running away from police after he drove through a red light.

His blood tested positive for methylamphetamine, amphetamine, and alcohol following the crash at the intersection of Ferntree Gully Rd and Cambden Park Parade in August 2022.

Mathew Dyer drove his silver SAAB through a red light at Ferntree Gully Rd and Cambden Park Parade, slamming into two cars, killing his passenger and mother of two Nicole Woollard.

Dyer’s Saab was travelling a minimum of 159km/h when it slammed into a Nissan before colliding with a Toyota.

Dyer was an unregistered driver.

At the time of the crash, Dyer was on bail on charges of possessing methylamphetamine, fraudulently using a registered label and theft.

Emanuel Kur

Another boozed-up learner driver, 23-year-old Emanuel Kur, was doing 190km/h in an 80/h zone on the West Gate Bridge when the unregistered Ford with the wrong number plates was driving ploughed into a truck.

Kur’s best mate Kuol Jock Deng was killed in the crash in July 2022.

Kur was a learner driver and his blood alcohol level was 0.209.

The limit for a learner driver is zero.

He was jailed for nine years and six months.

Nathan Cusbert

Nathan Cusbert’s case of dangerous driving causing death of his best mate and drink driving dragged on, mostly due to the Covid lockdowns.

The 23-year-old was the holder of a probationary licence when him and his close friend Toby Mustard were involved in a road crash in Bendoc, north east of Melbourne, in December 2020.

Nathan Cusbert blamed a wombat for causing a road crash that killed his best friend. Picture: Mark Stewart

Mr Mustard, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was thrown from the Toyota utility Cusbert was driving and crushed as the vehicle rolled over on to him.

Cusbert blamed the crash on a wombat which shot down from the bank. He told an emergency services operator he’d been drinking Northern Tinnies at a party prior to the crash.

“I’ve had a couple of beers. I am on my green P plates. I am going to be over the influence. I’ve killed my fucking mate, murder, I am fucking done. I swear I didn’t mean to kill him,” he told the operator.

Cusbert was jailed by the County Court late last year for 22 months.