Cardross road crash

Victims of the Cardross crash, from top left to right, Shane Hirst, 16; Abby Hirst, 17; Cassandra Manners, 16; Stevie-Lee Weight, 15; Cory Dowling, 16; Josephine Calvi, 16.

The Cardross road crash was a hit and run crash at Cardross, Victoria, Australia at 9.50 p.m. on 18 February 2006, where the driver of a Ford EA Falcon station wagon struck a group of thirteen teenage pedestrians, killing five immediately and injuring eight more. The teenagers were walking along Myall Street, Cardross to a party in nearby Red Cliffs after being dropped by a taxi driver at an incorrect address.

Cassandra Manners, 16, Stevie-Lee Weight, 15, Cory Dowling, 16, Abby Hirst, 17 and her 16-year-old brother Shane Hirst all died at the scene. Josephine Calvi, 16, died the following day at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

On 20 February 2006, Thomas Graham Towle, an unemployed 35-year-old father of six from Red Cliffs, appeared in the Mildura Magistrates Court facing 17 charges, including six of culpable driving, five of negligently causing serious injury and one of failing to stop after a collision. On 31 March 2008 Towle was found guilty in the Supreme Court of Victoria and sentenced to 10 years jail with a minimum of seven years, of which he had already served two years. He completed his sentence on 16 May 2016.