A September 2023 head-on crash that killed two elderly people in San Mateo County has been attributed to an Australian motorist driving on the wrong side of the road, which would have been the correct side in Australia, so that motorist got a plea deal for just two months in jail.
It was September 21, 2023 when two people were killed in a head-on, wrong-way crash in the southern San Mateo County community of La Honda, as the Bay Area News Group reported at the time. The victims have since been identified as married couple Linda and Jack Davis (the News Group identified them as “in their 60s,” other more recent reports have identified them as both being 80 years old). Two other passengers riding with the Davises were also hospitalized when they were struck by a BMW M4 going the wrong direction on Highway 84.
But the driver who crashed head-on into them, 32-year-old Luke Nardini, was an Australian tourist who had only been in the US a short time. And in Australia, they do drive on the opposite side of the road as in the US. Which may have created some leniency for Nardini, as KRON4 reports that he was sentenced to two months in jail.
Nardini was originally sentenced to stand trial last month, but San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Jackson offered him a plea deal. Nardini took the plea deal, and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charges.
Additionally, Nardini must give vehicular safety speeches at three area high schools, as well as with the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office’s Save A Youth program. He’s also getting ten days lopped of the two-month jail sentence for time already served.
Nardini is scheduled to surrender himself to San Mateo County Jail on November 1.
Related: Two Die In Wrong-Way Crash On I-280 In Daly City [SFist]
Image: DO NOT ENTER, WRONG WAY Warning Sign at the Exit of Interstate 405, Los Angeles. (Getty Images)
