Meth addict fronts court for causing the death of a motorist

A distraught family have lashed out at the sentence of a drug addict driver who killed much-loved husband and father in a horrific fatal collision in Bulla.

Shattered family members of a doting father-of-two are furious at the nine-year jail term an ice addict responsible for causing his death received, saying the killer driver should have been locked up for at least 12 years.

Unlicensed driver Corey Comport, 24, appeared for sentencing in the County Court on Friday after pleading guilty in the Koori Court to a charge of culpable driving causing death and failing to stop.

He must serve five years and eight months before being eligible for parole.

Comport’s driving on Bulla-Diggers Rest Rd on August 30, 2022, described by a witness as “suicidal and crazy”, caused a three-car crash that killed Nirvair Singh.

“It’s life sentence for us, so he should also have got a life sentence or at least 60 per cent of the maximum penalty which is 20 years,” Mr Singh’s friend Lucky told the Herald Sun.

Ice addict Comport, who has never held a driver’s licence, used drugs including methamphetamine and ketamine and had been speeding at 168km/h when he smashed his rented Kia Cerato into the back of a Jeep Wrangler.

Nirvair Singh killed in a horror crash in Diggers Rest.

Mr Singh died at the scene after the 4WD was pushed into the path of his Toyota Kluger travelling in the opposite direction.

Lucky, who preferred to only use his first name, questioned how Comport, with cognitive difficulties, was able to get behind the wheel and said he should have been supervised by authorities.

“Nobody should go through what Nirvair went through. If people break the law, they must be adequately punished,” he said.

Lucky and Mr Singh came to Australia together in 2007, and said his affable friend would be terribly missed by everyone he knew.

He said Mr Singh had the ability to find humour in any situation and without his presence, his wife and two kids would need all the support they could get.

In an emotionally charged victim impact statement she read out in court in October, Mr Singh’s wife said it felt like a piece of her heart was missing.

“I am doing the best to find strength to carry on, the road is daunting but I am determined to honour his memory and to provide the best for my children,” she said.

In court on Friday, Judge Scott Johns said Mr Singh’s loss has left an immeasurable void in the lives of so many who relied upon him in a multitude of places.

He said about half an hour prior to the crash, Comport was involved in a conflict in Sunbury and left in a hurry. He was observed by police travelling at about 168km/h in Bulla and a pursuit was later abandoned.

The Kia was travelling in excess of 160km/h in the five seconds prior to colliding

with the Jeep, slowly increasing in speed before colliding with the rear of the Jeep.

Judge Johns said Comport’s actions were a very serious example of culpable driving and that the speed was “outrageous”.

Mr Singh, a popular Punjabi singer, was at an early stage of starting a construction business at the time of the crash.

During a round-the-table discussion involving him, his mum, Justice Johns and three Aboriginal elders following his guilty pleas late last year, Comport kept reiterating that he felt “terrible” about his actions which shouldn’t have happened. “I wish I was never on the road, I shouldn’t have been on drugs,” he said before offering his condolences to the family.