Durban - Disbarred lawyer Koobashan Naicker has admitted he was drinking and taking drugs before he caused a multiple-car pile-up on Durban’s Athlone Bridge, killing dance teacher Carmen Hunter and mom and son Gillian and Connor Bell in March 2011.
But he specifically denies he was “under the influence”, saying instead he ought to have realised the combination of alcohol and cocaine together with a medical condition - a detached retina - would have resulted in “gross negligent and reckless” driving.
This was the essence of a plea read out by Naicker’s advocate, Christo van Schalkwyk, in the Durban Regional Court on Monday in which he pleaded guilty to eight charges including three of culpable homicide and one of reckless driving relating to the accident.
The other charges, one of driving over the limit (with a blood alcohol level of 0.26) and three of negligent driving, were committed from May 2009 to February 2011 - raising questions as to why these offences were not dealt with properly at the time.
The latter charge related to another accident in Riverside Road, just more than a month before the fatal bridge crash.
Naicker, in his plea, admitted that he had entered an intersection and, failing to keep a proper look-out, had smashed into a car driven by Fathima Beebee Cassim. He fled the scene.
It was while describing the events relating to this charge that he raised, for the first time, the “eye condition”, saying it was the reason why he had not kept a proper lookout.
“My peripheral vision was affected as well as my depth perception, which made it difficult for me to judge distances and speed.
“Driving the vehicle under these circumstances was negligent,” he said.
Six weeks later, after drinking and snorting cocaine - and still suffering from the same eye condition - he again got into his white Mercedes and drove at excessive speed on to the bridge and, according to the written plea, “failed to avoid a collision with a motorcycle” (being driven by 19-year-old Hunter).
He said he was reckless in that he did not stop, but then crashed into other vehicles.
He admitted causing the deaths of Hunter, Bell, 32, and eight-year-old Connor, saying they were due to his negligence.
While initially granted bail on condition that he not drive, this was cancelled on evidence that he had broken this condition. He then brought a fresh application on new facts and was released without the “no driving” condition.
In spite of his plea on Monday, he remains a free man until at least the end of January.
Van Schalkwyk argued that his bail should be extended so that he could properly brief a criminologist, psychologist and his ophthalmologist who would testify in mitigation of sentence.
The State - which will argue for imprisonment - is preparing to counter these reports.
Audrey Bell, the grandmother of Connor, who attended court yesterday, said:
“He robbed two little girls of their mother and big brother… if he was really sorry, he should have pleaded guilty last year when he said he would.”
Regarding the plea, she said: “He is just full of excuses… I am going home now to break the news to Jason (her son) and tell him that he is still out. He is going to be so angry.”