Driver who killed father and injured son, 6, sent 44 Snapchat messages while driving 100km/h before fatal crash

The Guardian

a day ago

A young man had his head buried in his phone and, when he looked up, he had killed a beloved father and injured his son, a court has been told.
Peter Agius sent 44 Snapchats while driving just 12km at 100km/h down a busy Victorian country road in early 2023.
He received 41 replies, including one 20 seconds before the deadly crash.
His victim, Adam Sutton, had just picked up his six-year-old son from school when their car was struck by Agius's vehicle in January 2023.
Sutton died at the scene while his son was taken to hospital with critical injuries. The boy was left with a permanent brain injury.
County Court judge Kevin Doyle labelled Agius's offending as 'extreme inattention' as he jailed him on Thursday for at least six years.
'A life was lost and a young child's life has been damaged by your actions,' the judge told Agius, aged 23, who cried upon learning his fate.
Agius had fought the two charges – of culpable driving causing death and negligently causing serious injury – during a jury trial in regional Victoria.
He claimed to have dropped his sunglasses while driving and looked down to pick them up, when the crash occurred.
His lawyers argued Agius should be convicted of dangerous driving causing death and serious injury, not the more serious charges.
But prosecutors argued Agius was not paying attention to the road because he was sending and receiving dozens of Snapchat messages while driving, which was grossly negligent behaviour.
Analysis of Agius's phone revealed he sent and received 85 Snapchat messages while driving about 12km from his worksite to the crash scene at the intersection of Traralgon-Maffra and Farmers roads in Glengarry.
A jury ultimately convicted Agius of the culpable and negligent driving charges in April 2025.
The judge on Thursday said Agius was 'an accident waiting to happen' and he would have seen Sutton waiting to turn right if he was paying attention.
'The duty of every driver is to pay proper attention to the road – you didn't do that,' he said.
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Agius had a history of dangerous driving, including a fine and loss of licence for dangerous driving while being pursued by police in 2022.
In 2020, he was ordered to undertake a road trauma awareness course for careless driving. In February 2024, he was caught driving while on bail for the offending which caused Sutton's death, despite having been banned.
'Twice before this catastrophic collision, you had engaged in incredibly stupid driving offences,' the judge said.
'You should have understood the basic duties of driving from these experiences, but you did not.'
Sutton's family and friends told the court he was 'deeply loved as a husband, father, son, brother and friend to many people', Doyle said.
Leanne Sutton said 1,000 people attended her son's funeral, with 2,000 watching online, and his death had left 'an enormous void' in the lives of all who knew him.
His father, Ray Sutton, said the pain and distress caused by Adam's death was 'indescribable' and not a day went by that he did not think about 'the life sentence we've been given'.
Agius was jailed for a maximum of nine years and eight months. He has served 122 days of that sentence and will be eligible for parole after serving six years.