Mackay car crash: Kylie Burrage’s impact statement after husband Scott Burrage’s fatal Mirani crash
Last photo of a doting dad with his twins revealed just hours before he was killed by a speeding driver – read his wife’s harrowing victim impact statement
- Scott Burrage was killed by a driver travelling at 182km/h on March 20, 2021
- Wife, Kylie, said her last photo of him is working on their car with their children
- She said she doesn’t consider his death a car ‘accident’ due to the high speed
- Offending driver, Sefo Paul, was sentenced to eight years in jail
A devastated mother of three said she refuses to call the horror car crash that killed her husband an ‘accident’ as the man who crashed into him at 182km/h was sentenced.
Queensland widow Kylie Burrage said her husband, Scott Burrage, was out testing a newly fitted lightbar on March 20, 2021, when speeding driver Sefo Pau collided with him between Mirani and Marian in Central Queensland.
In a victim impact statement, Mrs Burrage said the last photo she took of her soul mate is of him fitting the lightbar to the front of their Toyota Prado alongside two of his daughters the day before he died.
Father of three Scott Burrage was killed by a driver travelling at 182km/h on March 20, 2021 (pictured, the family’s last photo of Mr Burrage, taken while he was attaching a lightbar to the front of their car with the ‘help’ of his daughters)
‘The last photo I have of him was with our twins ‘helping’ him,’ she wrote, as reported by the Daily Mercury.
‘We had plans to travel south at Easter to finally go and see family. These two things were important to Scott. Safety and family.
‘We put our three children to bed that night and after prayers and a hug and kisses, Scott left to go test the lightbar.
‘As a consequence of (Pau’s) behaviour, he didn’t come home.’
Mrs Burrage added that the term ‘accident’ in relation to her husband’s death makes her furious and recalled seeing ‘no life or soul’ in his eyes when she went to identify his body.
‘There will be no convincing me his death was an accident. You decided to get behind the wheel that night,’ she said.
‘You would be of an age knowing that if you ran from police doing that speed that ‘an accident’ was likely.
‘You would have been aware that if you hit anyone doing that speed, you would kill them. You decided to drive like an idiot. You decided to kill my husband.
‘That’s the blatant truth of the matter. The incident was no mere accident.’
Devastated widow Kylie Burrage (right) said she refuses to call the crash that took the life of her husband Scott (left) an ‘accident’ due to the high speed
She said one of the worst things about the whole ordeal was knowing her husband wasn’t granted an ‘easy death’.
Emergency responders and witnesses at the scene had pulled Mr Burrage from the wreckage of his ute and attempted to save him before he tragically succumbed to his injuries, just metres from the crash.
‘I can’t begin to imagine the horror he would have felt in his last moments,’ Mrs Burrage said.
‘I can’t tell you the guilt I feel because I wasn’t there by his side. It wasn’t an easy death. From what I have witnessed… he fought and he suffered.
‘I can’t describe the shock that comes with the cold hard realisation that a loved one is beyond your reach. Scott’s eyes were still open.
‘There was no life or soul in those blue depths. Just a revelation he fought to stay, and that hurts.’
Mrs Burrage said she struggles knowing how her husband (pictured together) suffered in his final moments following the high-speed collision
However, Mrs Burrage finished her statement with a show of resilience by swearing she won’t let her husband’s death overrun or destroy her life.
‘I said at the beginning I believe in forgiveness – I’m working on my heart on this journey,’ she said.
‘I’m not doing this for you, but for myself and my children. My girls deserve a mother free of anger and bitterness.
‘So in honour of Scott and the incredible man he was, I’m endeavouring to live a life that honours him.
‘What you did will not define me. What you did will not have victory.’
The court heard Sefo Pau was travelling at 182km/h when he collided with Mr Burrage on March 20, 2021.
The father of three young daughters had parked in the driveway of a waste treatment plant on Mackay Eungella Road when Pau flew across the grass lawn and hit him.
‘He slammed into the left passenger side of Mr Burrage’s Toyota, causing it to slide across the driveway and into the grass,’ Crown Prosecutor Jessica Guy told the court.
‘Pau’s Lancer flew over the top of Mr Burrage’s car and landed upside down behind it.
‘Mr Burrage was bleeding heavily and struggling to breath.’
Pau was sentenced to eight years in jail and will be eligible for parole in January, 2025.