Ex-Geelong footy player Ray Card jailed over fatal car crash
Ray Card played 110 games for the Cats in the 1970s and 80s, but now lives 'under a shroud of sadness and shame' following the drunken accident that killed his partner and left a 19-year-old woman with significant injuries.
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Card and Mandy McDonald attended a wedding in Lara, outside Geelong, on November 16 when he made the fateful decision to drive home, as reported by the Geelong Advertiser.
Card, 68, who had a blood alcohol reading of 0.226, more than four times the legal limit, drove onto the wrong side of Melbourne's Ring Road and collided with a BMW.
McDonald died at the scene and the teenager from Lovely Banks, who was a passenger in the BMW, was left with a dislocated and fractured hip, a broken forearm and permanent nerve damage.
Card pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing death and negligently causing serious injury, with Judge Gerard Mullaly telling Geelong's County Court on Thursday Card made a 'catastrophically bad decision' to get behind the wheel.
Peter and Jenny, the parents of the young lady involved in the crash who is now 20, spoke outside the court after the sentence.
'The Justice had his reasons, but I think it's time that a stronger message was sent that too much alcohol doesn't do anybody any good,' Peter said.
'And it's time something was really done about it to reduce these sorts of incidents and the suffering it causes.'
Asked about his daughter, Peter said: 'It's still a long road to follow, to get over the trauma that it caused her is probably the biggest issue I think
'She's still got a long way to go … she used to be an active volleyballer and she's not able to do that sort of thing yet.
'But she certainly wants to be able to.'
Jenny added: 'The sentence for serious injury was two years and 10 months, Angelina will be still struggling with all her injuries well past two years and 10 months.
'At 20, that's a hard pill to swallow.'
Card had a number of character references during the trial, including some former teammates, which were taken into account by the judge.
But he still called Card's conduct a 'diabolically bad decision'.
Card wrote an apology letter to Angelina, when he stated he now 'lived under a shroud of sadness and shame'.
'The prison time I will serve will not compare to the lifetime of hurt and regret I will have caused you,' he wrote.
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