Father-of-three Matthew Nilsen was wearing a yellow, high-visibility shirt while cycling across a main road in Bundaberg on April 29 last year.<\/p>\n
What happened next has been described by a judge as “nothing short of horrifying”.<\/p>\n
Lachlan Robert Carver, 22, was behind the wheel of a car that hit the 34-year-old at a speed of more than 100 kilometres an hour.<\/p>\n
The provisional licence holder was racing learner driver Trent-Daniel Lionel McRae, 23, about 7:40pm when he struck Mr Nilsen.<\/p>\n
The impact sent the cyclist into the air, eventually coming to a rest more than 30 metres away.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Matthew Nilsen was propelled into the air when he was hit by a car on Takalvan Street.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n
While the pair slowed their cars after Mr Nilsen was struck, a court has been told they soon accelerated away from the collision.<\/p>\n
Both men pleaded guilty to the dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death and leaving the scene without obtaining help in the District Court in Bundaberg today.<\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Toby Corsbie told the court that the pair abandoned Carver’s car further down the road and McRae drove him and his 16-year-old passenger home.<\/p>\n
Mr Crosbie said Carver was arrested the following day, while McRae’s girlfriend and father alerted police that he had also been involved the following week.<\/p>\n
Mr Corsbie said Carver was either not paying enough attention and did not notice Mr Nilsen, or saw him but “didn’t care”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The court was played CCTV footage of the moment the car struck Mr Nilsen.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Johanna Marie)<\/p>\n
The court heard both Carver and McRae were on bail for drug trafficking charges at the time of the crash.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The court was shown CCTV footage of the crash, which Judge Vicki Loury KC described as “nothing short of horrifying”.<\/p>\n
The court was told a passer-by called emergency services after the cars failed to stop.<\/p>\n
In sentencing, Judge Loury said while both defendants were morally responsible for the crash, Carver was the one who caused physical harm to Mr Nilsen.<\/p>\n
She said he had displayed “complete disregard” for public safety and showed “not a skerrick of remorse” when he left Mr Nilsen on the road.<\/p>\n
Carver’s defence lawyer, John Cook, said his client had displayed a “callous disregard” on the night but had since demonstrated genuine remorse, including writing a letter of apology to Mr Nilsen’s family.<\/p>\n
Carver was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment with a release date after eight years.<\/p>\n
His legal team said they intended to appeal the sentence.<\/p>\n
McRae’s defence lawyer, Ed Witton, said his client was not to be sentenced for causing or contributing to Mr Nilsen’s death.<\/p>\n
He said McRae offered “fleeting assistance” to Carver in a moment of “sheer panic” that he deeply regrets.<\/p>\n
McRae was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with a parole release date after 18 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Father-of-three Matthew Nilsen was wearing a yellow, high-visibility shirt while cycling across a main road in Bundaberg on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,9081,1991,9076,2028,9075,2774,9078,9080,9077,9079],"class_list":["post-7682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bundaberg","tag-crash","tag-drag-race","tag-fatal-crash","tag-fatal-hit-and-run","tag-hit-and-run","tag-lachlan-carver","tag-lachlan-robert-carver","tag-matthew-nilsen","tag-trent-mcrae"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}