A 34-year-old Perth man has been sentenced to more than two years' jail over what has been described as a "catastrophic" car crash that claimed the life of his three-year-old son.

Michael Brian Newman pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of his son Dre in May, 2012.

The crash, in Caversham, happened just weeks after he bought a car and paid $200 for a modification which led to the wheels losing traction with the road and the car hitting a tree.

District Court Judge John Wisbey said it was difficult to imagine a greater calamity for a parent, than to cause the death of their child, but a jail term was needed to deter others.

Newman sobbed in the dock as Judge Wisbey sentenced him to 28 months jail.

He will have to serve 14 months before he can be released on parole.

Sergeant John Smith from WA Police's major crash squad said he hoped the case would serve as a warning to others.

"People out there who are considering making any modifications to their vehicles [should] have a good look, understand exactly what the modifications will do your vehicle, and what those consequences of those modifications will result in," he said.

"This has wrecked two complete families."

What sort of a 200$ mod would make such a difference to a car that would cause such an event that would land you with a gaol sentence?

my guess is spooling/welding the diff.

absolute joke of a mod, makes the car very hard to control at the best of times, only said benefit is so you can do burnouts with both wheels spinning.

A hyclone everybody knows they are the best bang for buck mod hahhahahahahhahahhahahhahahhaha

So how many street driven volksies run dropped spindles, after market disc brakes, adjustable front ends, narrowed beams, undisclosed capacities, etc etc... And how many are engineered/approved by authorities for legal use?

All food for thought.

I'm sure there is plenty of opinion on this topic, but the 'what if' still exists

There are many opinions on this forum with a lot of people thinking that it never will happen to them but the potential is there all the time, I posted this story because it was a major news item in Perth this week when I was there for training, the problem is that the authorities will clamp down on all modifications not just the illegal ones, I think a lot of people have no idea but the responsibility is there's alone, I get shouted down because I do not like narrowed beams and is one modification that cannot be approved, I have taken the time and effort the engineer all my modifications so I can insure the vehicles and have coverage that will at least give me some form of financial protection.

That is an absolute tragedy....I connot imagine how it would feel to be responsible for the death of your own son !

Perhaps the $200 would have been better spent on advanced driving lessons?

Vlad, I have a 'spool' in No. 8 Beetle.....it's not that "hard to control", and I don't need to "do burnouts".

EDIT:- In case anyone doesn't know, No. 8 Beetle is STRICTLY A TRACK RACE CAR

Who does that with their three year old son in the car?
Says more about the driver than the modification.

Interestingly, I had a conversation with a potential customer in Hawaii a few weeks ago. He had a certain amount of budget to buy a turbo Subarugears transaxle to fit to his EJ22 turbo powered beetle (already a rocketship as you can imagine).

He wanted an LSD but didn't have the extra $650 to spring for the torsen LSD that locks and unlocks smoothly when the rear wheels try to break traction. So he asked me if I could fit a locking spool to the transaxle instead.

I told him it was open diff or LSD or nothing. No locking spools for street cars. I did it once, a long time ago in my RX3 - never again. Particularly uncontrollable in the wet.

Quote:

Originally posted by HappyDaze That is an absolute tragedy....I connot imagine how it would feel to be responsible for the death of your own son ! Perhaps the $200 would have been better spent on advanced driving lessons? Vlad, I have a 'spool' in No. 8 Beetle.....it's not that "hard to control", and I don't need to "do burnouts". EDIT:- In case anyone doesn't know, No. 8 Beetle is STRICTLY A TRACK RACE CAR

All the rebels without a clue on this forum should take notice, it cost his sons life because of an illegal modification. he has to live with that for the rest of his life.

Quote:

Originally posted by vlad01 nailed that one pretty good! thought $200? lost control? got to be a spooled diff, likely falcon or holden

why does everyone always refer back to kids with everything. is this some sort of a defense thing?

I never said anything about the kid. I found it amusing that i got it in the first go with no info other than the price and loosing control.

I think it is a timely wake up call for a lot of people.

I had a look at a mid 60s beetle a year or so ago, had come up from VIC to QLD, was almost completed and up for sale. Had dropped and narrowed adjustable front beam, dropped adjustable rear spring plates, IRS conversion, Porsche disc conversion with Porsche wheels all round, rear discs, scat or similar aftermarket seats. Many of those mods are illegal for road use, many others need an engineering inspection. He assured me a roadworthy guy who had inspected it had told him it was all fine and would pass. The only thing was the wipers didn't work. When I talked to the transport compliance guys they said that most of the mods were a no no and that a common tactic was to pull a wire from something and use the "everything works but xxx needs fixing" as an excuse for the unwary. Funny that when the car got sold a year beforehand in VIC the same story was there re the wipers. Not exactly a hard fix.

Now if a roadworthy inspector did actually look and pass it, that is a real concern. Granted not everyone would spot a mod but isn't that kind of knowledge part of the job?

Although in QLD now, any car which passed that subsequently fails in a 2 month window, the full legal and financial burden of blame falls on the roadworthy inspector. They would be up for the cost of making it roadworthy.

So what are we saying here? All the children that died in unmodified cars are not really important? Any loss of life is sad & traumatic. All life is precious, but death is at our shoulder every day. Tomorrow is promised to NO one. (Including the insured & certified.) The driver of the car made tbe decesion to modify his car & is now paying the high price. Using emotional issues in a debate, means you have a poor set of facts backing your point of issue. Lets stick to VW modifed car accidents hey. My2c

All modifications requiring engineers approval on cars at our house are all done with engineers approval and appropriate paperwork.

I would like to hear from people who have undertaken to get engineering approval for some of the common mods for VW's such as narrowed beams and drop spindles etc. What sort of time and cost is involved? Are the rgulations consistent between states etc.?

Unfortunately, no the regulations are not consistent between states.
Cheers....Wayne

When I took my L Bug for its Safety Certificate (Qld Roadworthy) inspection so that I could register it, the inspecting officer did not pick up that it had ventilated disc all round. He just commented that he had never driven a Beetle that braked so well.
I then told him it had complete front hubs and rear trailing arms from a Porsche 944, using all factory Porsche parts which are interchangeable for 1303 Beetle parts.
Even though the braking was far superior and he couldn’t pick the non VW parts, he would not issue the roadworthy certificate without it being inspected by an engineer and blue plated.
Even though I was pretty cheesed off at the time and a few more hundred dollars out of pocket – but I get it – modifications have to be safe, which unfortunately some people just don’t get.

Luftmister, there is no emotion in the article I posted just the outcome of an illegal modification, it is irrelevant what car it is, the out come can be the same with any vehicle as the potential remains there all the time. In this case he just happened to kill his son.

With the right engineer you can have the dropped spindles certified, after they have been tested, as for the narrowed beam main roads engineer in Queensland told me outright it is an illegal modification

I'm not really sure what the point of this post is?

Are you really trying to say that the 90% of this and all the other VW forums that drive cars with modifications are the same as a guy who bought a Commadore, got his diff welded, then tried to do a burnout and accidently killed his child?
I doubt anyone on here would try and do a burnout with our kids in the car and shame on you for saying it's our own fault if god forbid one of us has an accident and one our children are injurd or killed.

Is this just a roundabout way to get another post in about narrow beams?

I've driven completely stock VW's that are far more dangerous at 110km/hr on the highway than ones that have big brakes, dropped spindles and or narrow beams.

The outcome was a result of the drivers actions.
This wasnt a simple loop on a wet roundabout or a straight on plough into a guard rail at 25Kph which is often the case with a locked up diff.
He chucked a skid from second to third so its fair to say he was getting onto it speed-wise, hooning his arse off, lost control and found a tree with a rather sudden stop.
Lets say he fitted a replacement and stock LSD rather than the afformentioned locked diff. The outcome would still be the same with asudden stop and lifeless child.

However since its actually NOT a modification, would things be any different judicially and media wise if the car had had a double pegger fitted stock? I think so.

Its like blaming guns for death. Guns dont kill people, people kiill people.

So for the police spokesman to blythelly imply a "200 dollar modification" results in death and destruction rather than taking clear and direct aim at the idiotic descision the driver made at the time is just typical opportunistic law enforcement verbal diahorreah designed to extract the most sympathy from the greater public.

The whole story presented isnt clear at all.
Im guessing this guy jailed has a mighty long list of priors to recieve that kind of sentence regardless of any modifications and that bolloockery from the police spokesman is just opportunistic blather.

E

The point of this post is that someone got pee'd off in another forum topic because the discussion on narrowed beams and lowered VW's wasn't going his way. So they've posted this story to show that a modified car has killed someone, to try and prove their point that you shouldn't modify a car. Even though more people are killed in factory built stock cars, old and new, everyday. Waste of a topic.

As tassupervee said, the outcome was a result of the drivers actions. Probably a typical hoon wanting to do sick burnouts in front of his mates, but instead put his foot down with a child in the car. As others have said, tomorrow is promised to no one. You could be driving your legally stock/modified, engineer approved car down a street and be T-boned by someone and be killed.

Nothing to do with narrowed beams but the inability of people who carry out these type of unapproved type of modifications are in denial about the potential outcome.