British backpacker faces 20 years in jail over fatal e-scooter crash
A British backpacker is facing up to 20 years in an Australian jail after being charged with killing a pedestrian she hit while riding an e-scooter.
Alicia Kemp, 24, is alleged to have been three times the legal alcohol limit when she collided with Thanh Phan, a 51-year-old engineer, who was said to have been standing on a footpath.
Mr Phan, a father of two, had been waiting to cross the road in Perth's central business district when Ms Kemp, who had a passenger on the e-scooter, struck him on May 3.
Mr Phan died in hospital from brain injuries.The passenger, understood to be a 26-year-old friend of Ms Kemp, suffered a fractured skull and a broken nose.
Ms Kemp, a psychology graduate from Redditch, Worcs, was denied bail when she appeared in court in Perth charged with dangerous driving occasioning bodily harm and dangerous driving occasioning death. The magistrate said she was too great a flight risk to be freed on bail.
If convicted, the maximum penalty is 20 years' imprisonment.
Ms Kemp was supported in court by her family, who travelled from the UK, and her boyfriend, with whom she was travelling the world.
She graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BSc in psychology with criminology, before completing a masters in forensic mental health.
She went on to work with children in care who had emotional, behavioural, physical and intellectual difficulties.
In the summer of 2023, she began a two-year trip around the world, posting her adventures on TikTok and describing herself as a 'digital nomad'. She worked as an English teacher in Vietnam and volunteered at an animal shelter in the Philippines.
She was in Australia on a four-month working holiday visa, and had been working at Durty Nelly's Irish Pub in Perth.
E-scooter hire suspended
The police have claimed she was travelling at speeds of up to 15mph before she hit Mr Phan from behind. She was said to have been drinking since 2.30pm and the collision happened after 8pm.
Prosecutors told the court her 'inexplicably dangerous' riding was captured by CCTV, and other pedestrians had to 'take evasive action' as she allegedly rode the e-scooter on the footpath.
She was said to have had a blood alcohol level of 0.158. Local laws dictate that those riding electric vehicles like e-scooters must have a level below 0.05 to drive.
As a result of the collision, the city of Perth suspended the hire of e-scooters.
Dr Michael Page, the West Australia president of the Australian Medical Association, told News.Com.Au that at least one person a day was admitted to trauma units in the state with major injuries caused by e-scooters.
He added that the number of patients with really serious injuries had been increasing.
'It's really a scourge in terms of injuries in our society and the problem with these council-endorsed private hire e-scooters in city centres is people are hopping on without any experience [of] riding e-scooters,' he said.
'They're often intoxicated. They might be riding at night. They might not be wearing proper protection and so the chance for something to go wrong is very, very high.'
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