Ballarat op shop manager Heidi O’Neill pleads guilty to dangerous driving causing death
A respected op shop manager is facing a maximum 10 years behind bars after she ploughed her Peugeot into an elderly man on a main Ballarat street.
North West
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A respected op-shop manager was high on meth when she struck and killed an elderly pedestrian while driving through Ballarat’s town centre.
Heidi O’Neill, 37, pleaded guilty in the County Court on May 5 to charges including dangerous driving causing death.
O’Neill was driving her new Peugeot wagon along Sturt St when she ploughed into the 78-year-old man just before noon on May 9, 2018.
The victim, Winston Wells, was crossing the road after driving to Ballarat from Ararat for an eye examination.
O’Neill struck Mr Wells who was carried more than 10 metres after becoming wedged to the front of the Peugeot.
Mr Wells was flung a further 2.8 metres when O’Neill’s Peugeot came to a stop.
The victim was rushed to Ballarat Base Hospital with life-threatening injuries, then flown to the Royal Melbourne.
He died on May 29 due to complications caused by the collision after spending almost three weeks fighting for life in hospital.
Police questioned O’Neill at the scene where she returned a zero blood alcohol content but later tested positive to meth.
However, O’Neill wasn’t formally interviewed by police until September 2018.
She told police she was on banking run for her Ballarat Hospice Care retail operations manager job.
Part of O’Neill’s duties was running the organisation’s op-shop.
She claimed she didn’t see Mr Wells who “just appeared”.
O’Neill admitted she “snorted a quarter to half a point” of meth the night before the collision.
She said meth helped her treat a health condition, kept her awake, and relieved pain.
Although the op shop manager had meth in her system, the prosecution relied on O Neill not keeping a proper look out, which amounted to dangerous driving.
O’Neill – who also pleaded guilty to exceeding a prescribed concentration of drugs – is facing a maximum ten years behind bars.
Judge Liz Gaynor extended O’Neill’s bail until sentencing on May 18.
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