New charge for young dad accused of causing fatal Ashcroft crash

A young father has been hit with a new charge after he was accused of driving at nearly twice the speed limit before a horror crash that killed two teenagers.

A father who has allegedly never held a driving licence has been hit with a new charge over a horrific crash that killed two teenagers.

Police allege Nicholas Thew was driving a grey Ford sedan at speeds of 45 km/h over the 50 km/h limit on Maxwells Ave in Ashcroft on the morning of November 6, 2023.

Footage from the crash site shows the car veering onto the footpath and smashing into a tree and a power pole shortly before 11am. The impact ripped the car in two.

Two teenage passengers, aged 13 and 14, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Nicholas Thew has been charged with causing a horror crash that killed two teenagers.

A 23-year-old passenger was also injured in the crash, which police allege was caused by Mr Thew’s negligent and dangerous driving.

Mr Thew pulled himself out of the mangled wreckage of the car and was caught on camera fleeing the scene, according to police allegations.

He remained on the run for 24 hours before he handed himself into police on November 7 last year.

The 28-year-old was charged with nine offences, including two counts of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death, two counts of failing to stop and assist after an impact occasioning death, and driving without ever holding a licence.

On Wednesday, court documents revealed Mr Thew is now facing a 10th charge.

The force of the impact tore the car in half. Picture: Nine

Two teenage boys were pronounced dead at the scene. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

The most recent charge is a second count of negligent driving occasioning death and relates to one of the teens who died in the crash.

The Sadleir resident had already been charged with negligent driving occasioning death over the death of the other teenager.

He has not entered pleas to any of the ten charges before the court.

His lawyer Julian Mufale told the court he had “engaged an expert” to produce a report for his client’s defence, but it “won’t be ready until late September”.

He asked the court to adjourn the matter until the report could be completed.

Magistrate Peter Thompson agreed, noting the report “is going to be fairly critical to negotiations.”

Footage from the scene appeared to show Mr Thew extracting himself from the wreckage.

The video then appears to show him fleeing the scene.

Mr Thew will remain behind bars on remand until he returns to court at the end of September.

According to police allegations, he has never held a driver’s licence and caused the crash by driving dangerously at high speeds.

Police allege he would have known the impact of the crash could have caused the deaths of his two teenage passengers, but he didn’t stop to help them.

Instead, CCTV footage of the area appears to show the 28-year-old fleeing from the scene of the crash on foot.

Originally published as New charge for young dad accused of causing fatal Ashcroft crash