You don't need any of these gimmicks, all that's required is to get drunk and speed recklessly:
A LEARNER driver whose car slammed into and killed a university student has blamed a cat and sore eyes for the deadly crash.
Puneet Puneet, 19, told the Herald Sun he drank four whisky and cola drinks at a party in Nunawading and later drove off in his V6 Holden Commodore.
Students Dean Hofstee, 19, was killed and Clancy Coker, 20, seriously injured when the car hit them outside their Southbank hotel early on Wednesday. The Gold Coast students were in Melbourne for the annual university games.
Mr Puneet, an Indian hospitality student in Australia on an education visa, said factors other than alcohol and speed were to blame for the crash.
"My eyes were sore and they were closed and when they opened a cat came on to the road and I lost control," Mr Puneet said.
Mr Puneet, has been charged with culpable driving, has been granted bail :S and was remanded to appear in court in January.
An investigation by police indicated Mr Puneet was travelling at more than 150km/h in a 60km/h zone and had a blood-alcohol level of .165 - more than three times the legal limit.
Learner drivers must have no alcohol in their blood.
"I don't think I was going at 150km/h," Mr Purneet said.
Mr Puneet's car mounted the footpath after leaving the City Rd tunnel in Southbank. The car hit trees and traffic lights before ploughing into the two men outside the Mantra Hotel.
Mr Puneet said that in the hours before the crash he had been drinking at a restaurant in Nunawading with colleagues from Telstra -- where he works part time as a sales representative.
"I was drinking scotch. I had four scotch and Cokes at the restaurant," he said. "I was coming back from a party at Nunawading with my team leader from Telstra."
Mr Hofstee, from Burleigh Heads, died at the scene.
Mr Coker, from Mermaid Beach, is recovering in the Alfred hospital with head injuries and suspected fractures to his leg and pelvis.
* Puneet pal freed on bail Herald Sun, 15 Oct 2009
* Killer driver's farewell bash Herald Sun, 13 Oct 2009
* Killer driver 'bought false passport' Herald Sun, 13 Oct 2009
* Puneet mate a flight risk, court told Herald Sun, 13 Oct 2009
* 'Extradition could take years' Courier Mail, 29 Sep 2009
He is not allowed to drive while on bail, must report to police five times a week and cannot leave the country.
^^ This is the part which angers me, despite all these conditions, Puneet still managed to slip out of the country and got back to India, where he remains at large....
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In Australia, drink driving and excessive speed is the biggest killer in the nation, on average, five people die per day on Australian roads and in a speech to the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), (then governor-general Michael Jeffrey) noted “a further 20,000 people are seriously injured [paraplegia, quadriplegia, limb amputation and brain damage] each year in road crashes – an average of two every hour. And 10 years ago, the dollar cost of road deaths was estimated at $15 billion. Today, it’s believed to be double that.”