A woman who walked free from court after being fined $600 for her role in a "freakish accident" that caused her sister's death feels vindicated by the sentence, her lawyer says.
Asyai Luk, 24, was initially charged with dangerous driving causing death and failure to stop and render assistance over the November 2022 crash.
However, prosecutors discontinued the more serious offences after she agreed to plead guilty to downgraded charges of careless driving and driving as a learner without supervision.
Luk borrowed her mother's black Dodge about 11.30am on November 7, with her cousin in the back and her sister Anong in the front passenger seat.
The sisters were fighting and Luk stopped the car outside a home in Sunshine, Melbourne's west, about 3pm, got out and walked up to a stranger's home to ask for help.
She told the resident she was being attacked by her sister and asked them to call police.
Luk went back to the car, where Anong had moved to the driver's seat and threw clothing at her sister, who got out of the car.
Anong tried to get back inside the car and was holding onto the passenger door when Luk accelerated forward.
She drove forward one car length and the passenger door hit a car parked in a driveway.
Anong lost her grip on the door, was thrown face forwards into the other car and fell to the ground screaming as her sister drove off.
Luk briefly stopped and then left her sister at the scene, with bystanders calling emergency services.
Anong, 24, was taken to hospital where she died later that evening.
Prosecutors had pushed for Luk to be handed a conviction becasue her careless driving had resulted in a death, but Luk's defence said she was also a victim and asked for her to be spared conviction.
County Court Judge Kellie Blair sentenced Luk on Wednesday and, after finding her offending was "momentary and unintended", she decided not to convict her.
The judge said Luk was unaware her sister was at the car door when she accelerated and took into account there had been an argument of sufficient severity to cause her to ask a person for help.
"I acknowledge the grave consequences and the loss of life that resulted from this tragic accident," she said.
"To be clear, I am not sentencing you for having caused the death of your sister, rather it is one of the consequences."
She fined Luk $600 and suspended her learner's permit for nine months.
The suspension was backdated to her arrest in 2022, meaning she will be allowed back on the roads as a learner driver.
Outside court, Luk's lawyer said his client was devastated by what had happened and mourned the loss of her sister every day.
"She has suffered a lot, she has been vindicated of her sister's death, that in itself is a form of punishment in the effect it's had on her life," George Balot told reporters on Wednesday.
He said the other car parked in the driveway was there illegally with its bonnet protruding on the road.
"It was a freakish accident," he said.
"She has received a nine-month suspension and the courts work on evidence not assumptions …there is no evidence that she had legally caused her sister's death."
