A passenger in a fatal News Year’s Eve car crash that killed a 19-year-old man has contradicted the statement he made to police in January, 2016.
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Jarred Sargent was a witness in the trial of his sister, Gemma Paige Sargent, 19, in the County Court in Ballarat on Monday.
He was one of three passengers who appeared as witnesses on Monday.
The court heard how Mr Sargent told police in a sworn statement that he had not seen the speedo, but the car was travelling faster than 110km/hr before the crash, when his sister was overtaking another car.
It also heard that he told police he knew how it felt in a car to go fast, and he had previously been in cars up to 180km/hr.
While questioned in court on Monday however, he said had been trying to piece together the accident, when he spoke to police in 2016.
“I also don’t think she was doing 140km/hr (at the time of the crash),” he said.
“I got asked how fast she was going and I tried to estimate it.”
The court was also told Mr Sargent had Asperger’s syndrome, and they should focus on what he said during the trial.
The car with driver Gemma Sargent and four other passengers crashed on Buninyong-Mount Mercer Road on December 31, 2015.
During the trial on Monday the court also heard from two other passengers in the car, Jolene Bounday and Emisha Lloyd.
Ms Bounday said she had short term and long term memory problems following the crash.
“I can’t remember getting in the car … I can’t remember the car journey,” she said.
The court heard how Ms Bounday gave a statement to police two weeks ago, about 20 months after her first statement in January, 2016.
She said she had only recently remembered how the 19-year-old victim had asked Sargent to slow down before the crash.
“He asked Gemma to stop the car so he could get out just before the car was going to roll,” she said.
“He said, ‘I don’t want to die tonight’.”
The third passenger, Ms Lloyd, told the court although she made a statement in January, 2016 about the victim, she could no longer remember making any observations about him immediately before the incident.
Prosecutor Pat Bourke said Ms Lloyd had told police she had seen the victim pushed back in his seat prior to the crash.
The trial will continue before Judge James Montgomery on Tuesday.