SYDNEY, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Australian police will allege that a teenager accused of crashing a car into a crowd of people in the city of Newcastle earlier in October was driving negligently 15 minutes before the incident.
Indika Bambrick Samarasinghe, aged 18, has been charged with 17 offenses after a car crashed into a crowd of people who had gathered for an official event supporting a local sporting team in Newcastle, 110 km north of Sydney, on the morning of Oct. 3.
Ten people were injured in the incident, including a five-year-old girl who was taken to hospital in a critical condition.
Police documents filed in a Newcastle court on Thursday allege that Samarasinghe began driving dangerously at 9:20 a.m. and continued to do so until 9:35 a.m., when the car hit the crowd, and he was subsequently arrested.
Officers said at the time that the car was being driven erratically prior to losing control and crashing into the crowd.
Samarasinghe was initially charged with nine offenses before eight new charges were laid on Tuesday.
The 17 charges include four counts of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, each carrying a maximum penalty of seven years' imprisonment. ■
