Jawad Al Hussein tried to cross Prestons Creek causeway on Rugby Road, Bevendale, when it was flooded, resulting in the deaths of two men. Photo: Google Maps.
Jawad Al Hussein and a group of his friends had almost reached his farm in regional NSW, north of the ACT, when they came to a flooded causeway.
The decision he then made, to allow two of them to jump onto his ute’s tray because the cab was full of their belongings, before trying to drive through the water tragically resulted in their deaths.
Al Hussein, then aged 41, admitted causing the deaths of 30-year-old Ghosn Ghosn and 32-year-old Bob Chahine, who were swept off the tray of his ute and drowned in the floodwaters on 31 October, 2022.
Judge Julia Baly, who sentenced Al Hussein on Friday (16 May), said police and emergency services had tried to persuade people not to drive through floodwaters for years. Now, she said, the NSW District Court added its voice to those calls.
When leaving Sydney that day, Al Hussein and a friend drove in his Mitsubishi Triton ute while Mr Ghosn and Mr Chahine followed in a Toyota Kluger as they all headed to Al Hussein’s farm in Bevendale, a rural locality between Goulburn and Yass.
They heard several roads on the way were closed due to flooding, while Mr Chahine called his wife to say it was raining heavily.
It was about 9 pm when the group reached a flooded causeway at Prestons Creek, not far from Al Hussein’s farm, so they stopped and decided to leave behind the Kluger.
Mr Ghosn and Mr Chahine joined a German shepherd dog on the back of the ute, then Al Hussein tried to drive it across the causeway, but the ute soon stalled and he lost control.
The floods were strong enough to push the ute off the causeway into the creek. While Al Hussein and the friend inside the cab managed to escape through the windows, Mr Ghosn and Mr Chahine were washed off the tray and were swept away.
Al Hussein called triple zero and tried to find and save his two friends, but the pair drowned and their bodies were found downstream several days later.
He had allowed his friends to get on the tray even though he knew they couldn’t swim.
“The driving was highly negligent,” Judge Baly said.
“To my mind, the risks were very obvious.”
She said no prudent driver would attempt to drive across a flooded causeway with unrestrained passengers on a ute tray and thought Al Hussein had been “overconfident” in his ute and his own ability to navigate the situation.
Al Hussein pleaded guilty to two counts of negligent driving causing death and one count of driving while suspended after he was found not guilty of manslaughter and dangerous driving in a jury trial.
Judge Baly said the now 43-year-old former tree lopper had no criminal history, was devastated that his actions had caused his victims to lose their lives and had apologised to his victims’ wives.
She said Al Hussein was deeply remorseful, had good prospects of rehabilitation and didn’t pose a risk to community safety.
He was sentenced to a 10-month intensive corrections order, which is a community-based sentence, with 350 hours of community service. He was disqualified from driving for two years.
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