Constance Beaston avoids jail over Wangaratta crash that killed Adrian Charles Rawlings

A student nurse whose lapse in concentration on the road caused the death of a beloved husband and father asked a cop at the scene ‘I am going to jail, aren’t I?’

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

A student nurse who told a witness at the scene of a fatal crash: “It’s my fault, I am going to jail”, will not be locked up.

Constance Beaston, 23, was on Friday sentenced after earlier pleading guilty to a single charge of dangerous driving causing the death of Narre Warren father-of-three Adrian Charles Rawlings.

She was given a three-year community corrections order due to exceptional circumstances including her poor mental health, age, guilty plea, remorse and good prospects of rehabilitation.

Mr Rawlings had left home to visit his parents on October 29, 2021 when the crash happened about 5pm.

The Hyundai Beaston was driving collided with a Volkswagen Tiguan wagon being driven by Mr Rawlings on the Great Alpine Rd, East Wangaratta.

Mr Rawlings’ vehicle rolled multiple times before coming to a stop on its roof.

He died at the scene.

Witnesses saw Beaston, who held a probationary licence at the time of the crash, sit next to Mr Rawlings’ car and shout “I am so sorry, I’ve killed him, I’ve killed him.”

Beaston then asked a police officer at the scene whether she was going to jail to which he replied that he couldn’t answer that question.

The County Court in Wangaratta handed Constance Beaston a community corrections order for dangerous driving causing death.

Judge Anne Hassan said aggravating features seen in similar cases like speeding, erratic driving, use of alcohol or drugs, fatigue and using a mobile phone were missing in Beaston’s case.

She said Beaston’s conduct involved only momentary inattention however, the consequences were enormous as a wife and her children lost a loving husband and father.

In an impassioned victim impact statement, Mr Rawlings’ wife Narelle 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.

Judge Hassan said general deterrence and denunciation remained the predominant sentencing considerations and that the message must be sent that drivers must remain vigilant at all times.

A psychological report stated that Beaston had been in an unabated psychological decline since the crash and suffered from PTSD and adjustment disorder and needed extensive treatment.