Jessica Langford (right)
Australia
A PROBATIONARY driver's estimated alcohol reading and speed - and the fact that she was driving naked at the time - were used as evidence yesterday to commit the teenager for trial on culpable driving.
Jessica Maree Langford, 19, pleaded not guilty to the charge and to dangerous driving causing the death of her boyfriend at Hastings on November 29 last year.
Melbourne Magistrates Court heard that Langford's speed was calculated at 104 km/h in a 90 km/h zone and her blood alcohol concentration at .09 about two hours after the crash.
She and Daniel Andrew Glover, 19, had been ''skinny dipping'' at Shoreham around midnight and remained naked after using their clothes to dry off. Langford later told police they had been drinking at the beach and that swimming in the nude had been fun, but denied any sexual activity happened while driving.
In a record of interview, she said that usually when she drank she would get dropped off and someone else would drive home. ''But this time I was very stupid.''
Police from the major collision unit found that Langford's car rotated clockwise after she oversteered in Coolart Road before it collided with a wooden power pole.
Langford, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was found injured on the ground while Mr Glover remained secured by his seatbelt.
Defence barrister Dermott Dann argued at the contested committal hearing that a properly instructed jury at trial could not return a guilty verdict on culpable driving solely on Langford's alcohol reading.
He said there was no evidence of bad driving before the crash or that Langford was drunk and the issue of her state of undress was irrelevant.
It was wrong to ''lump'' the factors of alcohol, speed and undress together as amounting to gross negligence, he said.
In reply, prosecutor Stephen Payne submitted that the question of gross negligence was a matter for a jury and that the alcohol reading alone - given that Langford was on a zero limit - was sufficient evidence. Mr Payne said the evidence of speed and her ''state of undress'' were indisputable.
Magistrate Susan Wakeling found there was sufficient evidence for a jury to convict Langford, of Balnarring, and she was released on bail. She is to appear later at the County Court.
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