WA news LIVE: Surviving passengers says driver's sentence ‘way too short' for crash that killed Nick Campo
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9.30am
Surviving passengers says driver's sentence 'way too short' for crash that killed Nick Campo
A passenger in the car crash that killed close friend Nick Campo last year has spoken out, labelling the jail sentence for the driver as 'way too short'.
The 17-year-old driver, who cannot be named due to his age, was speeding in his modified car when it crashed in North Lake.
The teenager was sentenced to three years and two months behind bars earlier this month after pleading guilty to charges arising from the crash – with time served, he could walk free as early as mid-next year.
After the judge handed down his decision, Campo's mother Bianca said outside court she felt disappointed, but Tyler Rowe, who was a passenger in the fatal crash, said he was angry.
'No matter what sentence he got, it's not going to bring Nick back, [but the sentencing] was way too short,' he told 9News Perth.
'For him to get that just hurt a lot.'
Nick Campo had just left his 18th birthday party in North Coogee when he, Rowe and two other friends got into the dangerously modified Toyota Hilux driven by the P-plater, who travelled at high speed and ignored traffic signs.
Campo died, while the other young passengers suffered catastrophic injuries.
But Rowe said despite an extensive list of broken bones, possible paralysis and brain damage that put an end to a promising football career, the mental scars he still wears are harder to overcome.
'I don't know if it's a flashback but I have a dream where I wake up straight post-crash and I can see everything, and that still haunts me,' Rowe said.
'Even though it might not be what actually happened, but just seeing what I looked like, what [the other passengers] looked like, what Campo looked like. That killed me what Camps looked like.
'Time has almost made it worse. Because every day without Nick is just a day I don't want to be around anyone, I just want to be by myself. I think about it every minute, every second, it just doesn't leave me.
'I'd be lying if I said I wasn't crying myself to sleep nearly every night. It's just not the thing anyone should go through.'
Judge Hylton Quail told the court it was not just the driver responsible for the crash, and found others in the car had been egging him on to get to a nightclub before lock-out time when he lost control.
Despite the mental battle Rowe faces each day, the once-promising footballer wants to move on, and help other young people.
He talks about his experience to school students through the PARTY (Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth) program, educating them on risk-taking behaviours.
Rowe also works for the WA Football Commission and is training with Cockburn Lakes Football Club – albeit unable to ever play full-contact again, given the life-threatening risk it would pose following the brain damage he received from the crash.
'I'm a runner for this team, just to keep me involved with footy, because I can't play it anymore. It's good fun, a good mob of blokes,' Rowe said.
'I'd be lying if I said I wasn't missing [playing]. I think just footy, or sport, was a big part of who I was.'
9.30am
Across the nation and around the world
Here's what's making headlines today:
US President Donald Trump has unleashed a tirade on Israel for violating his ceasefire, saying both it and Iran 'don't know what the f--- they're doing' in an unprecedented display of rage at a close American ally.
European leaders have arranged a royal welcome for US President Donald Trump, including an overnight stay at a Dutch palace, even as he wavers on whether America would come to their aid in a time of war.
Scientists have called for intensified surveillance and biosecurity measures after the discovery of 20 new viruses within bats in China.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley will order a second, sweeping review of the Liberals' core purpose and direction after acknowledging her party had been 'smashed' by Labor at the federal election.
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