Mercy Chepkoech sentenced after fatal hit and run in Darwin Northern Suburbs

A Darwin mother and nurse has faced court after she failed to report crashing into a man who later died. Read the grim circumstances behind the “unavoidable” incident.

Mercy Chepkoech appeared in the Northern Territory Local Court, Darwin. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

A mother of three and nurse has been sentenced after she failed to stop and render assistance to a man who she fatally wounded with her car.

Mercy Chepkoech was sentenced in the Darwin Local Court to six months jail, immediately suspended for 12 months, after she struck a man on Bagot Rd on December 22, 2023, causing his death.

The 22-year-old victim was shirtless and wearing dark pants on the night of the incident and ran across the road directly into the path of Chepkoech’s vehicle.

The registered nurse swerved and braked in an attempt to avoid him in an incident “even Ayrton Senna” couldn’t have avoided, but the man collided with the front passenger side of the car.

Chepkoech stopped 200m down the road and by the time she returned to the deceased, three other members of the public were tending to the scene, with one, a nurse, already conducting first aid.

Without realising she was the driver, the trio told her the man would be okay when asked and in shock she returned to her vehicle to return home to care for her sick child.

Darwin Local Court. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

It was only the following morning that she called an officer known to her in distress to confirm she had hit someone and didn’t know what to do.

Her lawyer Robert Welfare said Chepkoech was of good character, having served in the Kenyan army before moving to Australia with her three children, aged seven to 16, to work as a nurse.

He said a conviction would be “pretty devastating” for her in terms of job prospects and opportunities going forward, and she was immediately remorseful.

“She was unaware of the reporting requirements and she was in terrible shock at the time,” Mr Welfare said.

Judge Alan Woodcock said the nurse had received glowing references, however the offending was serious and needed to be treated as such.

“She has three children, is a prospective immigrant from Kenya and is a kind-hearted, community minded, dedicated and selfless person,” he said.

“What looms large here is the objective seriousness of the offending, it’s not unusual for people being dealt with for this offence to be of good character and to have no antecedents.”