Justin Williams’ crash highlights failure of Oz courts
Last Saturday night twenty three year old Justin Williams stole a Mazda 626 and proceeded to go on a high speed joyride with his girlfriend, eighteen year old Skye Webb.
After speeding past a police patrol the police engaged in a high speed pursuit but called it off after Williams ran a red light. A few seconds later Williams ran another red light and collided into a family of three.
Both Williams and the entire family died at the scene.
The real tragedy?
Williams had multiple prior records and just ten months ago put himself into a coma after crashing another car he’d stolen. At the time of both crashes Williams was also an unlicensed driver.
Sadly the only tragedy here is the abysmal ineffectiveness of Australia’s court system who now unquestionably have blood on their hands.
Police are already in a difficult position when it comes to engaging in pursuit. On one hand there’s the danger factor to the general public and themselves but then there’s also the need for some kind of deterrent. If moron drivers know that by hitting the accelerator police will mandatory give up chase what do you think they’re going to do?
Currently Sky Webbe is in an induced coma, she was in the passenger seat of the stolen car and had been going out with Williams for just two months. Today Webbe’s mother Debbie (pictured right) lashed out at police and placed responsibility of the accident squarely on them.
Ms Webb’s mother Debbie this morning conceded Justin was running from police but said she blamed police “totally” for the crash.
“I can see he’s done wrong but it’s a petty little crime,” she told Radio 3AW.
“One stolen car. He didn’t murder anybody at the time, you know, but that’s what it led him to because of the police chase.”
The mother called for legislation to ban police pursuits.
“Innocent people are dying all because of police chases,” she said.
Apart from sounding like your typical bogan trash family Debbie’s logic is bulletproof.
Wait what?
It is currently unknown when the car Williams was driving was stolen therefore just for how long he’d been speeding along before the police engaged in pursuit is also unknown.
If the police weren’t around does anybody really think some moron with his girlfriend speeding along are going to be stopping for red lights anyway?
You’ve just stolen a car, you’re speeding along and you’re unlicensed with a previous criminal record and outstanding charges. Yeah, better stop for those red lights.
As for a petty little crime, let’s not twist the situation post mortem. Justin Williams not only stole a car on Saturday night, he murdered an innocent family too. Murder isn’t exactly a petty crime in my books.
Whether the police were doing their job or not has nothing to do with it. Ten months ago Williams put himself into a coma after crashing another stolen car and the police weren’t pursuing him then. The only constant between two crashes is the idiot behind the wheel and those that support him.
Debbie Webbe included.
Unfortunately the family of the Oppelaar’s (the innocent family Williams’ smashed into), seem to be just as bogan as the Webbes and have also come out blaming the police.
Mr Oppelaar’s cousin, Jason Kelly, said: ”I purely blame police for it. He’s getting chased and that’s what young people do. They get scared and they take off,” he told reporters.
Mr Oppelaar’s sister, Nicki, was also angry. ”My brother is dead now because the police chased this car to the point where he didn’t want to stop.”
Mr Oppelaar’s brother, Chris Mills, said: ”You have to ask who’s responsible … in some part it’s the driver for doing the speeds he was doing, but mostly it comes down to the coppers … what good’s a stolen car?”
Firstly does anyone seriously think Williams was scared? He knew what he was doing, he’d been through the motions before and undoubtedly knew there was a high chance he’d be picked up by police. I sincerely doubt this pillar of society crapped his pants the second he saw a police siren on his tail.
Most likely Williams was enjoying the rush and his idiot of a girlfriend would have been cheering him on.
Secondly, “wanted to stop?” Sure, that makes sense. Williams was flying around speeding his nuts off in a stolen car before he even registered on the police radar, and we’re expected to believe he wanted to stop?
”onest guv, I ‘ad wanted to stop but then I saws those police sirens and shatted myself I did’.
Yeah I’m sure that was exactly what was going through Williams’ mind.
Thirdly it’s not about the stolen car. It’s about sparing the public from morons who steal cars and joyride around in them at high speeds. Williams had already proven he didn’t need a police to get himself into a car crash at high speed ten months earlier.
Unfortunately the coma crash didn’t kill Williams. Darwin gave him a second chance at life but the courts should have revoked his freedom then and there.
Instead, due to a troubled childhood, physical abuse, being down on his luck, missing his favourite tv show or whatever stereotypical bullshit reason his lawyer would have fed the courts, the Australian court system gave Williams the now all too familiar slap on the wrist treatment. Now an innocent family of three are dead.
The good news is that ten months after Williams was released and given permission to ruin more people’s lives, the Australian court system is still as limp dicked as ever. Last November P-plater Joanne Grosse was found slumped over the steering wheel of her car and had a blood alcohol reading of 0.385.
The legal blood alcohol limit for a P-plater is 0.00.
Despite having multiple prior drink driving offences Joanne Grosse was simply fined $600, disqualified from driving for 18 months (like that’ll work) and put on a good behaviour bond.
Three cheers for the Australian court system!
I for one can’t wait to read about who Grosse winds up killing and how invariably the police are to blame.
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March 22nd, 2010 at 3:37 pm Roadsafety crusader(Quote)
Who are these morons? If that knuckle head didn’t steal the car and decide to drive like a fool that poor family would be alive today.
I grieve for both families but more so the family of that innocent father and his children.
But, to blame the Police is absolutley outrageous.
I believe in truth in sentencing. The punishments imposed for stealing cars, driving them dangerously while you are intoxicated should include a compulsory period of imprisonment and community service. Maybe assisting past victims of road trauma who can’t even wipe their own backside.
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:55 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
This is the way to go. Get the idiots out there looking after accident victims and the drivers behind the wheels who survive. Zero tolerance on attendance to, if they don’t rock up for service back to jail. No excuses.
Rehabilitation and good behaviour bonds are garbage in these cases. The person has already demonstrated they are willing to endanger the general public recklessly and without concern.
March 22nd, 2010 at 7:11 pm jim(Quote)
be responsible for your own actions.I feel sorry for the family that was killed but justin williams was a moron who got what he deserved.he should have already been in jail for last years incident and his girlfriend would have known she was in a stolen vehicle.
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:43 pm Belthazor(Quote)
Excellent write up. I could not have said this better myself. This guy Justin Williams is an absolute drop kick, and for both the families to respond in the way they did just amazes me.
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:08 pm Ian(Quote)
You should check out some of the Facebook tribute pages. It truly is bogan central. Cue the banjos!!
March 23rd, 2010 at 4:07 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Oh my god I’ve been reading some of the Facebook stuff and it scares me bogan trash are allowed to breed.
Justin had 3 kids, had no qualifications beyond a drivers license and was out on bail when he killed the family. What’s more the Oppelaar family knew the Williams which explains the universal ‘it was the cops fault’ opinion they all shared.
This image has also been plastered all over Facebook:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2lckmt.jpg
Apparently Justin was a member of a whole bunch of ‘fuk da police’esque type Facebook groups and spent his time publishing anti-police trash talk on the internet… in other words he’ll be sorely missed as a pillar of society.
I wonder just how deluded you have to be as a family member or friend to not realise just how much of a bubble world you live in. Just accept the fact that dropkicks like Justin Williams are the very definition of what is wrong with Australia.
March 23rd, 2010 at 9:28 am lemmiwinks(Quote)
Well said Mr Soapbox. Low life piece of shit kills himself driving like a dickhead in a stolen car? No great loss. The collective IQ of society goes up ever so slightly. Low life piece of shit kills 3 other people driving like a dickhead in a stolen car? That is a tragedy.
I saw the bogan morons on the news last night blaming the police. What the fuck?! Seriously, all that fucktard had to do was pull the car over to the side of the road and the revolving door justice system would have had him home with his can of Bundy and cola some time the next day.
March 23rd, 2010 at 10:24 am Daniel(Quote)
I see you’ve already discovered they knew each other. More on that story here:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/driver-knew-victims-he-killed-while-fleeing-police-20100322-qra0.html
March 23rd, 2010 at 11:43 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
A rap sheet like that is simply an indictment that the ‘softly, softly’ approach to career criminals is an utter waste of time. This tragedy could have easily been prevented if the Australian criminal court system simply served its purpose.
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:39 pm bushrat(Quote)
Ah well, here we go, another week, more dead bograts, and more bograt families trying to justify thier foul lifestle and moral standards by blaming everyone except the true culprits – themselves!
There are answers for this type of behaviour, simply get so damn hard on these motherfuckers that they are sent away for a very long time for such offences. Every subsequent offence has the sentance recieved for the offence prior doubled, and stick to it. Ten years jail means – ten years jail! Fuck them!
I had a mate years ago (1969) who got offered a job as a mercenary in one of the middle eastern countries, (no name – no pack drill) guarding an oil pipeline. Ran into him years later and he told me how they dealt with drunk drivers in this particular country. They were in town one night for a wheel, when a taxi mounted the footpath and knocked over a rubbish bin. The driver was so drunk he couldnt stand up.
The police arrived, asked him if he had been drinking, and when he said yes, shot him dead with a pistol right on the spot! My friend assured me that they have almost zero drunk driving and car theft in this country.
Now, I am not suggesting we do this here, but perhaps it’s time that all vehicles were fitted with an immobilising device that could be activated by Police if this situation occurs.
So ok, this bloke is speeding/stolen car/robbed a bank/whatever, and he doesnt want to stop. Point the device, push the button, stop the car. We have the technology, and hey Kev, this could be your next stimulus package, and it might actually be worth doing!
As far as blaming the Police for this, crap! This bloke did this all by himself, nobody is to blame but himself and the way he was raised, plus of course the piss weak Aussie “justice system”.
March 23rd, 2010 at 7:19 pm Crimminal System needs to Change in this Country(Quote)
I so agree, the blame all falls on our justice system in this country. Look at murderers for instance they get ten, twenty years IF! They usually get out earlier for good behaviour. “WHAT A JOKE”
What about the life they took, the family members who never get to see them again, their pain and grief which never goes away. Then the crimminal gets to enjoy life and friends and family and our society.
IT IS SO WRONG, The police are only trying to get the dirt bags of the streets.
March 23rd, 2010 at 9:49 pm motiv8dan(Quote)
Amen Soapy great write up, what happened to people taking responsibility for their own actions? Did you see the memorial to the now dead bogan criminal retard of society on the side of the road? It includes many bottles and cans of beam and coke..
Why are bogans like this allowed to exist? I blame the idiot bogan drivers mother and family , then the driver, but not the police at all, I vote police get more powers to take scum like this down quicker, some sort of weapon,cannon maybe.
Maybe we just put all bogans in a big paddock somewhere and fence them in, let natural selection take care of them, natural selection is working just too slowly..
( sorry but i am pissed at the blame on Police )
March 24th, 2010 at 10:52 am bushrat(Quote)
The real tragedy here is that these people honestly believe they have the RIGHT to live like this, whilst we who play by the rules (even if we don’t agree with those rules) continue to take it up the ass all the time.
All bogans hould be sterilised by law so they cant breed!
March 24th, 2010 at 11:48 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
@motiv8dan
Did I ever. When I penned the article I had a niggling doubt that maybe, just maybe these folk weren’t bogans and I shouldn’t trust my gut feeling.
Then came the bundy and coke memorial, Williams’ facebook profile photo, the ‘fuk da police’ facebook group messages and Debbie Webbe’s ACA interview. If it smells like a bogan story then there’s a good chance it is.
Natural selection is being miserably hampered by modern medical science. It might be working slowly but it’s in no way keeping up with bogan idiots like Williams’ ability to reproduce. At age 23 he already had 4 kids of his own!
March 24th, 2010 at 5:56 pm bushrat(Quote)
A big paddock, Hmmm, maybe a little spot called Maralinga, and invite the poms to re-test the A-Bombs, but then, like cockroaches, they would probably fucking survive!
Interesting though, when I was a kid I lived in a street called, yep you guessed it, BOGAN STREET!
And ya know what? There wasnt ONE bogan in the whole damn street!
March 29th, 2010 at 11:35 am phil(Quote)
Skye Webbe was just an innocent victim. Right?
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=324581&op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=105495102818544&id=1782060868
March 29th, 2010 at 2:11 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Don’t you just love it when your gut feeling prevails?
Particularly loved the screenshot of Skye going on about ‘getting home in a hottie‘. Skye’s mother alleged her daughter would never consider getting into a stolen car. I think it’s fair to say Debbie Webbe is full of crap.
March 30th, 2010 at 11:30 pm ja01(Quote)
Debbie Webber – ie bogan loser – is so full of it! Doesn’t she realise that she contributed to her bogan daughter’s hospitalisation by
1) thinking that Justin ‘Mully’ Wilson was a nice bloke and thought there was no problem with Skye ‘now drinking from a straw’ Webbe going out with him even though he has an extensive criminal history
2) She gave her the moral compass to live by
3) It’s never their problem, it is always someone else’s fault.
May 7th, 2010 at 12:01 pm et(Quote)
These figures don’t include 2004-2010.
It’s a horrible thought that you feel like you can’t drive on the roads these days because some thoughtless young or older person feels like the road is a speedway. Once a car goes out of control………….no one can save you.
I have said this a million times, the judicial system in this country is piss weak. If the young ones want to drive like scumbags and they are caught more than once….Take their cars away from them and crush them right in front of them, ban them for life from driving.
It takes one act of stupidity to either kill or mame, so no three strikes your out. One warning………next time BAN. Also take legal drinking and driving to 20 or 21.
Debbie Webbe???? What a joke.
GUESS WHAT?????THIS DUMB SHIT WILL BE BACK TO DO AGAIN
May 7th, 2010 at 12:40 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Kinda makes you wonder just how far and ridiculous we have to go with the ‘softly softly’ approach before we start taking back the roads doesn’t it?
May 13th, 2010 at 11:27 pm rbab(Quote)
I am part of Justin’s family and I have 2 degrees and earn around $100 000 a year. I wouldn’t consider myself a bogan but would rather be that than ill informed judgemental hypocrits such as some of you.
I don’t consider that I have never been a danger on the roads, have I driven when I was too tired – yes. Could I have killed a family of 3 because of it – yes. Guess I was just lucky.
No, I have never been involved in a police chase and yes Justin made very bad decisions and we are all paying the very high price of those decisions. But which of us has not done something that could have had a tragic outcome.
We are all so quick to judge.
Can we stop for a moment and remember that Justin was someone’s son, brother, uncle, nephew, father, and friend. And we miss him dearly and we grieve for the family that was killed as well and we will carry that with us for the rest of our lives.
I am assuming that none of the people on this site that have made comments have ever had a speeding ticket or driven when too tired or lost concentration just for a second or answered their mobiles while driving. It must be hard to be so perfect. I can only aspire to such greatness from here in boganville.
May 14th, 2010 at 1:55 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
…drugs?
No. You were a complete idiot driving in that state, the rest of us on the roads were lucky you didn’t kill us.
This just makes it worse. It’s not like this was an isolated incident. From all accounts Justin William’s life had long since gone down the toilet. The fact that he had friends and family around him enough to defend and grieve after he died begs the question, where the bloody hell were you lot before he died?
Why didn’t any of you sit Williams down and simply ask ‘where do you think you’re life is headed mate?’
Nobody’s perfect but there’s definitely seven degrees of common sense seperation between people like Justin Williams and your average person.
May 14th, 2010 at 8:39 pm rbab(Quote)
Well I wouldn’t know what sort of income you would make from selling drugs, but actually no my income does not come from that. It is interesting to know that you know the average income of the average drug dealer though.
Yes I was and I am lucky I didn’t kill anyone. I totally agree you, I just find it hard to believe that you have never done anything you regret, but ok I have no reason to believe you would lie.
Yes it does, we know that more than anyone. Yes we did sit down and try to talk to Justin. Unfortunately, kids don’t just do as you want them to as much as we wish they did. I don’t defend what Justin did, I don’t blame the police. There were a lot of factors involved and you, of all people, being very well informed, would know that you don’t believe what you read in the press and assume that it is the truth because it’s not.
In fact most of what was written and reported about Justin’s life was incorrect, either wholly or in part. But let’s face it ‘Never let the truth ruin a good story’. I know your answer to this will be that the fact that he killed three innocent people is not made up and I acknowledge that.
The things that went on facebook were unbelievable and I also acknowledge that and would like to state here that I was not in anyway part of that. I am not trying to convince anybody that Justin was not responsible for what happened I just thought that maybe a little empathy for the families in these situations would be nice,it’s hard to read that people are glad he’s dead, but I guess I was wrong.
By the way, beautiful fish tank.
May 15th, 2010 at 4:20 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Oh I’ve done things I regret, but driving like an arseclown when either intoxicated or on drugs is not one of them.
I’m not sure how old you are but at 23 years old, Justin was hardly a ‘kid’. It’s not like this just happened, Justin’s waste of space existence would have been the end result of years of negligence and complacency on his parents, and to a lesser degree his family’s account.
If the Facebook comments were anything to go by then it’s easy to see how this happened. William’s appeared to be surrounded by clueless apologists trying to scapegoat anything to shift the blame off Justin.
With friends like those, who needs ene-oh wait you’re dead.
Glad to hear it, sounds like at least some of those around Justin are level headed.
As you mentioned, the Facebook sagas were about as close to Justin William’s family as most of us got. If the comments there were anything to go by, everyone William’s knew and was related to was a complete delusional loony.
In this respect I’m sure you can understand the lack of sympathy and hostile sentiment out there. Skye’s mum on the news bogan blaming the police certainly didn’t help either.
I can’t say I’m glad Justin died but pretending it was a loss or that the world is any worse off for it is a bit of a stretch. Put simply, with the exception of bringing life into the world, Justin’s life appeared to be a complete waste of time. His kids are probably better off without such a destructive deadbeat role model around and I know we now won’t be footing a ridiculous bill when he inevitably wound up in jail.
Kinda hard to feel bad about it.
Thankyou! Pulling it apart was one of the hardest things I’ve done, currently it’s sitting empty in storage back in Australia. Probably time to sell it soon.
You have no idea how bad the urges get everytime I walk past an aquarium here in Taiwan
. I forsee the starting up of a new fishtank sometime over the next 12 months!