Further fine for fatal crash mum Andrea Groening

A WOMAN sentenced to 12 months behind bars for causing a crash that killed her son has been slapped with a fine after pleading guilty to more offences

Andrea Groening and son Mehali Anastasios Pastrikos

• Fatal crash mum to spend 12 months in jail after death of 7-year-old son
• Fatal crash mum has no memory of speeding through red light, killing 7-year-old son, court hears

A WOMAN sentenced to 12 months behind bars for causing a crash that killed her seven-year-old son has been slapped with a fine after pleading guilty to more offences.

Andrea Groening, 25, was sentenced in the Supreme Court earlier this month to two counts of dangerous driving causing death and one count of dangerous driving causing serious harm following the crash in May last year which also killed her friend, Wade Williams, and injured another man.

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Groening appeared in the Darwin Local Court by video link from prison yesterday and pleaded guilty to two more offences related to the same incident – driving with a medium-range blood alcohol level and driving while high on cannabis.

Judge Michael Carey ordered her to pay $800 in fines and levies and disqualified her from driving for six months – a disqualification that will have expired by the time Groening is released from prison.

During sentencing in the Supreme Court earlier this month, the court heard Groening had been drinking and smoking cannabis before getting behind the wheel just before midnight on May 11 last year.

Darwin mother-of-three, Andrea Groening facing Darwin Local court in 2019.

Mr Williams was in the seat next to her and her son, Mehali Anastasios Pastrikos, was in the back seat.

She then drove at more than 40km/h over the speed limit through a red light at the intersection of Berrimah Road and Tiger Brennan Road, crashing into another car.

Mr Williams died at the scene and Mehali died on the way to hospital.

The driver of the other car suffered a number of serious injuries, including broken bones.

Her blood alcohol reading was later found to be 0.145.

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Sentencing judge Justice Dean Mildren, who fixed a head sentence of four years and six months, suspended after 12 months, said Groening’s “moral culpability was high”.

“The court must impose a head sentence which reflects adequately the gravity of your moral responsibility, this is because of the number of people you put at risk (and) the extent of the injuries inflicted, including the fact that two people died as a result of the collision,” he said.

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