A FORMER supermarket delivery driver, who fatally struck a 13-year-old while driving a vehicle without a valid licence on November 25, 2024, has been jailed for three years and five months.
Jotame Tokaituvana Lagilagi, 23, had pleaded guilty to a count each of manslaughter and driving a motor vehicle without a valid driving licence.
Lagilagi was sentenced by Justice Daniel Goundar in the High Court in Suva yesterday.
Court records show that Lagilagi made the deliberate decision to swap seats with an authorised driver and take control of a 3.5-tonne truck along Princes Rd, Tacirua on the day in question.
He did not hold a valid licence and his learner’s permit had expired two years earlier.
While driving at high speed around a bend, Lagilagi lost control on loose gravel and in an attempt to over-correct, he swerved into the oncoming lane and struck a Honda Insight.
The collision killed 13-year-old Mosese Vulavula who was seated in the back of his family’s car. The boy suffered catastrophic head injuries and was pronounced dead at the CWM Hospital.
A vehicle inspection report by the Land Transport Authority concluded that the vehicle was mechanically sound and that the accident resulted from it being driven by an unlicensed and inexperienced driver.
Lagilagi expressed deep remorse for the pain and sorrow he caused to the Vulavula’s family and sought their forgiveness. He indicated a determination to take greater care in how he lives his life and not to repeat such conduct.
Justice Goundar declined to suspend Lagilagi’s sentence, ruling that his high culpability and the gravity of the harm made any suspension an undue dismissal of the crime’s seriousness that would fail to deter others.
Lagilagi will be eligible for parole after serving two years and six months of his head sentence.
