Family and friend pay tribute to Jacinta Barnett following tragic death
The mother of 19-year-old Jacinta Barnett, the passenger who died in last weekend’s horror crash in Oakleigh, has remembered her daughter and sent a message to young adults.
VIC News
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Samantha Barnett, the mother of 19-year-old Jacinta Barnett who died in a car crash on Sunday night, has remembered her daughter as a “beautiful, smart and very polite,” girl.
The woman from Ferntree Gully was a back seat passenger in the Mazda, and was taken to hospital with critical head injuries, where she later died.
“Everyone who ever met Jacinta said all say that she always thought of everyone else before herself – everyone else came first,” she said.
“She had a love for photography.
“She was loved by everybody, everyone who met her.
“She touched everyone is so many different ways, whether it was family, or friends.”
An old friend of Jacinta told the Herald Sun she was a bright and bubbly girl who had a big life ahead of her.
“She was someone that had a bright future ahead,” Alex Nikolaou said.
“She was smart, bubbly, down to earth and just a genuinely nice person.
“It’s a life gone too soon.”
The pair were close in 2015.
Mr Nikolaou, 20, said Jacinta was always a keen photographer.
Barnett was one of two people who died, as another fights for life, after an erratic car driving at speed has ploughed into an innocent driver pulling out of a sidestreet in Melbourne’s southeast.
A 21-year-old Hampton Park man, Shannon Juriansz, is being remembered as a “good bloke” who was “so friendly”.
Aaron Eckles told the Herald Sun he was neighbours with Shannon and the pair would see each other up to three times a week.
“We sold a pushbike to him and he was so friendly. He ended up being good friends with us. Just a good bloke,” he said.
“Another life lost to speeding.
“You were a great bloke to get to know you will be missed, man.”
Shannon is understood to be a Sri Lankan national who came to Australia with his family a few years ago.
They were the last of the family to come out from Sri Lanka.
He lived with his family and worked as a tradie.
A relative of the family told the Herald Sun his parents are “really devastated”.
“We couldn’t even console them when we got here. They are in another space,” the source said.
His parents were at the coroner to identify their eldest son’s body on Monday afternoon.
A source close to the family said Shannon was “very loved.”
“He was just a really friendly, was the joker, a very decent guy.”
“He was respectable in every way, you couldn’t have asked for a better son.”
His school friends in Colombo, Sri Lanka found out the tragic news of his death on a WhatsApp group chat.
“He was a good person,” friend Sharada Weerasinghe said. “He was kind hearted, very funny.”
A Green Mazda 3 and Mr Juriansz’s Nissan Skyline collided on Ferntree Gully Rd in Oakleigh East about 8pm.
It is understood the Mazda was driving erratically at speed for “some distance” leading up to the crash. Mr Juriansz was the only occupant of the Skyline and died at the scene.
An 18-year-old male from Box Hill who was a backseat passenger was taken to hospital and has undergone surgery for critical head injuries.
Mother of deceased passenger Jacinta Barnett has issued a plea to other young passengers.
“If you get in the car, please be cautious of who’s driving,” she said.
“Be safe on the roads, don’t speed, and be cautious of the driver who’s driving the car.
A key part of the investigation will be if the backseat passengers were wearing seatbelts.
The driver of the Mazda, a 19-year-old from Bayswater North, and his 18-year-old female front seat passenger from Ringwood East were taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a stable condition.
The driver will be interviewed at a later stage.
Inspector Stuart McGregor from the Major Collision Investigation Unit said the crash was “completely avoidable”.
“This is not an accident, this is completely avoidable. This is a deadly crash,” Insp McGregor said.
“These are kids, children driving lethal weapons.
“Two people who are dead, this didn’t have to happen. We have to stop this carnage on our roads.”
Inspector McGregor said the Mazda was travelling in a westerly direction on Ferntree Gully Road.
“Because of that speed, because of that type of driving, a person pulled out of a side street, nothing wrong with what he did, he was almost killed instantaneously at the collision site,” said Inspector McGregor.
“We have an innocent person thinking they have time to pull out of the side street.
“Speed is probably going to be a major contributor to this collision.
“High speed, ducking and weaving and going through lanes. It is that sort of driving that is really dangerous.
“Once we know all of the circumstances, we’ll interview that driver and get their version of events.
“If we have high speed, erratic driving, especially if we have alcohol and drugs involved, we are looking at two counts of culpable driving. Each count has a high sentence of 20 years jail.”
Inspector McGregor said police needed anyone who witnessed the Green Mazda leading up to the crash to report to Crime Stoppers.
Stanley Ave resident Bryan McHugh said he saw the aftermath of the accident.
“It was a huge fire, the car was well and truly alight,” he said. “I’ve never seen an accident with so much stuff strewn across the road.
“I’ve never seen a car with so many flames, it was 15 feet high, it was huge. The noise was so loud.”
Mr McHugh said even though the speed limit along Ferntree Gully was 70kmh, the main road was popular for speeding drivers.
“Cars tear down there all the time,” he said. “It would be good to occasionally see a police radar, to try to get the message through.
“I’ve never seen a fatal accident before, but to me, speed had to be involved.”
Briggs St resident Yanti Sundoro has lived in the area for 10 years.
“The white car was on fire. There was a lot of smoke. “Bang, bang,” she said.
“You could not see the car, just the flames. It was very scary.”
Another resident said “half the neighbourhood was out” at the scene of the accident.
“It looked like it was high speed,” the resident said. “I heard it screech for a long time. Then it went bang.
“The road is notorious for a lot of racing. It happens a lot.”
Oakleigh East resident Bill Pedrina said he heard a “large bang” and a “dull thump” on Sunday night.
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“I thought, what the hell was that,” he said. “I could smell the burning. An acrid smell, rubber and oil.”
Mr Pedrina said he didn’t go out to the scene at first but did a short while after.
“By that time there was fire trucks, a whole mass of lights,” he said.
“The noise that I heard was no where near the drama and catastrophe that it was. Some sort of a disaster, flashing lights everywhere.”
He said the two cars were a “mangled mess.”
“The one that ended up on the outbound side was squashed back virtually to the windscreen, the front of it was pushed right back.
“The airbags had gone off. The other car was a mangled mess.”
Major Collision Investigation Unit detectives are at the scene and are investigating.
This takes lives lost on Victorian roads to 209 for the year compared to 152 this time last year.
Anyone who witnessed the collision or with dashcam footage is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.