Finding into death of Mathew Lister
Deceased
Mathew James Lister
Demographics
17y, male
Date of death
2010-01-17
Finding date
2012-12-21
Cause of death
Multiple injuries from motor vehicle collision
AI-generated summary
A 17-year-old male died from multiple injuries sustained in a motor vehicle collision when the car he was a passenger in struck a tree at high speed. The driver, a 19-year-old on probationary licence, was significantly intoxicated (BAC 0.192%) and driving at 150+ km/h in speed-limited zones while breaching multiple licence conditions including passenger restrictions and zero alcohol limits. Five of six occupants died. Passengers could not or would not exit at an opportunity to do so. Clinically relevant lessons include: patient/passenger education about refusing unsafe rides, recognition of high-risk individuals immune to conventional interventions, the role of passive safety systems, and multimodal prevention strategies addressing both infrastructure and behaviour.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Contributing factors
- Driver intoxication (BAC 0.192%, double the legal limit and in breach of zero BAC licence condition)
- Excessive speeding (150-180+ km/h in 40-60 km/h zones)
- Running red lights
- Mobile phone use while driving
- Breaching probationary licence passenger restrictions
- Unregistered vehicle
- Driver not wearing seatbelt
- Passenger not wearing seatbelt
- Vehicle overloaded with passengers
- Driver's apparent rage and recklessness
- Passengers' inability or unwillingness to exit vehicle despite opportunity
Coroner's recommendations
- VicRoads undertake a review into the appropriateness and feasibility of creating an offence for passengers who knowingly breach a vehicle passenger restriction
- VicRoads examine the impact of the night driving restriction currently imposed on probationary drivers in Western Australia to gather further evidence to inform the ongoing review into the feasibility of night driving restrictions for probationary drivers in Victoria
- VicRoads and the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), in association with their other road safety education partners, undertake an evaluation of the Fit2Drive community road safety program for secondary school students to determine the success of the program in empowering participants to make safe decisions, modifying their behaviour and ultimately in reducing their crash risk
- VicRoads investigate options to expand the circumstances in which alcohol ignition interlock devices are fitted to the vehicles of certain drivers who have demonstrated a propensity to repeatedly engage in high-risk driving behaviours, particularly probationary drivers
- VicRoads, in collaboration with their road safety partners, continue to monitor and trial where necessary, emerging vehicle safety technology with the real potential to address excessive speeding and drink driving, in particular for those high-risk drivers who have demonstrated poor self control and a failure to respond to conventional road safety interventions, such as passive alcohol sensors, vehicle speed limiters and Ford's My Key technology
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