An alleged unlicensed African driver has been charged over a fatal crash that left one attendee at Melbourne’s Supanova Comic Con dead and another seriously injured.
An image obtained by 7News shows the alleged driver in an orange hi-vis vest sitting against a wall after being arrested by police at the scene near the Melbourne Showgrounds on Saturday evening.
Awer Dau, 33, who lives in Werribee, is “very well known to police” and was allegedly out on bail, was charged with dangerous driving causing death and culpable driving on Sunday afternoon and remanded in custody after facing Melbourne Magistrates Court.
The alleged learner driver is accused of crossing onto the wrong side of the road in a Toyota Echo and slamming into a 20-year-old man from Keysborough, killing him instantly, and also hitting another 20-year-old who was left with “significant lower body injuries”.
The car then allegedly travelled down the footpath for another 100 metres before coming to a halt, and an off-duty officer then detained the alleged driver with help from members of the public.
Police are now investigating whether Dau deliberately hit the two men, who were leaving the first day of the annual comic culture convention.
“To get across the lane, up onto the footpath and then travel 120 metres along the footpath in between a two-metre-high fence, trees and power poles is extremely rare,” Victoria Police Detective Inspector Craig McEvoy said.
The injured pedestrian was rushed to Royal Melbourne Hospital where he is in a stable condition, while a third man was also taken to hospital suffering “trauma” but was not physically injured.
Dau did not ask for bail and will face court again on September 15 after police applied for an extended period to compile a brief which they said would need to include forensic examination, a mechanical reconstruction of the crash, CCTV and witness statement reviews, and a toxicology report, Newswire reported.
Header image: Left, the driver being detained. Right, the smashed Toyota Echo (7News).
