Family of a motorist who crashed into Falkholt family speaks out after horrible NSW tragedy
29 December 2017
The driver’s relatives who died after his car slammed into a family of four on the NSW south coast, killing the parents and leaving their children fighting for life, have broken their silence.
On Friday, Craig Anthony Whitall’s family spoke about the sad tragedy, praising him as an “amazing parent” who “did the best he could.”
“That’s all you can ask of anyone, to do the best they can.”
Trish’s mother stated she is hurt that people are talking badly about her kid. He has been described as a serial driving offender and drug user in papers following the Boxing Day disaster.
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His granddaughters, who can read, “are listening to it since dad was really private and didn’t want people talking about him,” she added.
Jessica Falkholt, 28, an NIDA graduate and star of Home and Away, was killed along with her sister, 21, when their family’s automobile was involved in a collision on Boxing Day.
Witnesses dragged the young woman from the wreckage as the vehicles were engulfed in flames, but her parents died quickly. Mr. Whithall, in the second car, was also killed.
Annabelle struggled for life in Liverpool Hospital while Jessica remained in a deep state in St George Hospital on Friday.
Mr. Whithall had previously committed traffic offenses and had previously served time in prison has been discovered.
His family issued a statement earlier in the day regarding the tragedy.
So, “our hearts are broken not just for our loss, as well as for the anguish the Falkholt household is experiencing,” they said.
Craig Whitall, he driver behind the fatal Boxing Day collision that murdered three members of a Falkholt family & left Home and Away actress Jessica Falkholt clinging to life, has been discovered to have a terrible criminal background.
Whitall was previously arrested four times for driving offences, according to an exclusive report by The Daily Telegraph.
According to accounts, Whitall was arrested for driving with such a disqualified licence shortly after the horrific accident that killed him plus 60-year-old Vivian, 69-year-old Lars, and 21-year-old Annabelle. It was thought that he was on P-Plates and had much more than 60 violations on his record, and he was taken into custody.
These offences have been revealed in the most recent report. According to the Daily Telegraph, Whitall already had a nine-year driving ban on top of his four prison terms.
Ten or more more convictions were made for driving on a suspended license. Many people are now asking why he was allowed to drive again. This man had been labelled an out-of-control driver at one point in time.
During his return trip from a heroin treatment facility, the 50-year-old man is suspected of ramming his Toyota Prado into in the Falkholt family’s car on Boxing Day.
For as many as 28 distinct names, Mr. Whitall, who was receiving disability benefits at the time of the crash, has been accused of using.
One for drug usage and two for dangerous driving, he was sentenced three times for being inebriated.
According to reports in 2008, he was found guilty of beating a young family member for the second time in less than two days in 1998.
By driving recklessly on the wrong side of the road, Whitall caused the death of the Falkholt family and himself. He’d barely got it back for a year when the accident happened.
Melinda Pavey, the Minister for Roads in New South Wales, said that despite being designated a frequent traffic offender, his disqualification time had already elapsed.
An official spokesperson for the New South Wales government said, “The NSW Government shares the community’s concerns after the horrible event on Boxing Day.”
Trish Whitall, Whitall’s mother, apologized to Seven News for what transpired on Boxing Day. “All we can do is express our deepest sympathies,” she said. Her son’s drug use at the time was likewise none of anyone else’s concern, according to her.
A month and a half after her parents, Lars and Vivian, and her 20-year-old sister, Annabelle, were killed in a car accident on Boxing Day 2017, Jessica Falkholt died in the hospital.
Following a crash at Conjola, Craig Whitall’s four-wheel-drive vehicle collided with the Falkholt family’s vehicle in the opposite lane of traffic.
The results of an inquest by the NSW State coroner Teresa O’Sullivan indicated that Mr. Whitall was admitted to Shoalhaven Hospital on Boxing Day morning.
While Ms. O’Sullivan claimed that he had been given enough methadone to “cover the holiday season,” he was still looking for the drug.
According to documents at the hospital, Mr. Whitall’s request was turned down, and instead of giving him valium, he was ordered to “figure out his prescription” and return to the hospital the next day.
According to a toxicology study, he had methadone, valium, doxepin, and trace levels of amphetamine and methamphetamine in his system at the time of the collision.
As part of his opioid treatment program, the court was told that Mr. Whitall had taken methadone for 20 years.
He was found with 3.5mg/L of doxepin in his system, which is inside the “lethal range,” according to Ms. O’Sullivan.
In her opinion, Whitall’s driving was hindered by the combination of doxepin, diazepam, and methadone in his bloodstream, which she believes contributed to his sedation.
According to the inquest, a witness who saw Mr. Whitall driving “aggressively and recklessly” before the incident described him as “absolutely flying,” according to the inquest.
According to pharmacologist Judith Perl, inquiry participants were told that this behavior was compatible with the effects of the medications he had taken.
A person who is agitated or delusional “may well be driving at a faster speed,” she explained.
According to Dr. Perl, the level of doxepin found in Mr. Whitall’s blood indicated that he would be “displaying indicators of an overdose in the lead up to the accident.”
Indicators of incompetence on a provisional driving permit
Even though Mr. Whitall was 49 years old when he got his learner’s permit, he had seven pages of driving records dating back to 1983 that the coroner described as “impossible to understand.”
He had committed four driving violations in the eight months before the disaster, even though he had only a provisional license at the time of the accident.
Mr. Whitall’s provisional license was suspended almost three months after his death because of the eight demerit points that had been issued to his driving record, the coroner said.
However, she admitted that he could still have been driving based on his long driving history without a license. –
However, “It is highly probable that Mr. Whitall would have carried on driving even if the demerit points had applied and his driving privileges had been banned at the time of the accident,” says the prosecutor.
