A British backpacker has pleaded guilty to killing a man in Perth, Australia, while riding an electric scooter under the influence of alcohol. Alicia Kemp, 25, from Redditch in Worcestershire, admitted to dangerous driving causing death during a video-link appearance at Perth Magistrates Court on Monday.
Prosecutors dropped a separate charge of dangerous driving causing bodily harm to her passenger. The charge of dangerous driving causing death while intoxicated carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in Australia.
On 31 May, Kemp had been drinking with a friend before being ejected from a bar. Later that evening, she hired an e-scooter and was travelling at 20-25kmph when she struck Thanh Phan, a 51-year-old structural engineer, from behind. Mr Phan, described by relatives as a 'beloved husband, father of two, brother, and dear friend', suffered a serious head injury and died in hospital days later from a brain bleed.
Kemp's female passenger, 26, sustained a fractured skull and broken nose but survived, while Kemp suffered minor injuries. The court heard that Kemp's blood alcohol reading was 0.158, more than three times the legal limit of 0.05. Prosecutors said CCTV footage showed her 'inexplicably dangerous' riding moments before the accident.
Speaking outside court, defence lawyer Michael Tudori said his client, as a 'young foreign national girl in our prison system', was 'nervous and worried' but relieved the secondary charge had been dropped. 'She's obviously done something stupid at the time,' he said, 'there's consequences, and she just wants to get on with her life.'
The collision made Mr Phan the first pedestrian in Western Australia to die in an e-scooter incident, prompting Perth's city council and other local governments to suspend hire schemes. Western Australian law requires e-scooter riders to be over 16, wear a helmet, be sober and not carry any passenger. Kemp, who was in Australia on a working holiday visa, remains in custody and is scheduled to appear for sentencing on 31 October.
