The principles from Spanjol v The Queen and George v The Queen — that an offender may establish that an additional factor outside the offender's control was a material cause of the death or serious injury, resulting in reduced moral culpability — apply to offences of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing serious injury under s 319 of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), not only to culpable driving or negligently causing serious injury. Poor road design, supported by expert evidence and a history of similar accidents, can constitute such an external contributing cause. However, reasonably misplaced reliance on a GPS navigation system may or may not reduce moral culpability depending on the circumstances.
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