Posted on 10/12/2026 10:23:50 AM PDT by grundle
A motorist who struck and killed a Pakistani international student who was praying in the middle of an Adelaide road has been given a suspended prison sentence and banned from driving for a decade.
Samia Malik, 20, was seen by witnesses and caught on CCTV appearing to kneel in prayer for almost four minutes on North East Road in Hillcrest on the night of May 6, 2025, before she was hit by then-19-year-old Ashton Jacob Friend.
Friend, who kept driving because he thought he had hit a kangaroo, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless use of a vehicle and leaving an accident scene after causing death, and faced court for sentencing on Friday, The Advertiser reported.
The court heard Friend was not affected by alcohol or drugs, was driving under the speed limit, and was looking in his rearview mirror in the seconds he would have needed to avoid hitting Ms Malik.
“You had approximately 2.25 seconds from the moment your headlights would have detected [Ms Malik] until impact,” Judge Anne Barnett told Friend in sentencing.
“The reconstruction expert opines only that you may have, in light of that time frame, been able to avoid the collision or minimise your speed.
“You initially thought that you’d hit a kangaroo, that you hadn’t seen anyone when you were driving and there were no lights in the middle of the road, but you heard a noise under your car and saw reference to the incident on the news the next day.”
Judge Barnett told the court that while Friend realised he had hit a person after seeing the news reports, the community expected drivers to be vigilant and attentive, and respond appropriately after accidents.
Friend read an apology letter at a previous hearing where he accepted full responsibility for his “actions and inactions”, and the “indescribable pain” he had caused.
“I know nothing I say can undo what I did or bring Samia back. I am deeply sorry for the life that was lost, for the grief and trauma caused to Samia’s family and loved ones,” he said.
Judge Barnett sentenced Friend to one year, three months and 29 days’ imprisonment, with an eight-month non-parole period, but suspended the sentence with a $500 good behaviour bond for two years due to his genuine remorse, young age, good prospects for rehabilitation, and the circumstances of the offending.
My question: why was she praying on the highway?
Hers was an act of aggression. You don’t pray in the road.
Careless?
Perhaps well-aimed is better.
Praying in the street isn’t an act of Religion,
it’s a motion of Conquest.
Run em all all down.
Dead skunk in the middle of the road..................
Darwin Awatrd candidate
Has no one asked why why she was praying in the middle of the road in the middle of the night? Not that that it excuses a case of hit and run, but it’s at least a little bit of a mitigating factor. Just seems strange—both that she was doing it and that no one mentions it.
, but suspended the sentence with a $500 good behaviour bond for two years due to his genuine remorse, young age, good prospects for rehabilitation, and the circumstances of the offending.
Which is worse: killing a kangaroo, or killing a muzztard?
From personal experience, colliding with a kangaroo is very disturbing.
Apparently, you CAN fix stoopid.
Just for reference - in the mideast (and Pakistan) anyone praying in the middle of a road would be considered insane
they have mosques for that
The fact we tolerate this nonsense in the West shows how stupid and infected by liberalism we are.
FR should start a rule that foreign local news stories have the nation at the end of the title in parenthesis.
“International student killed by ‘careless’ driver while praying in middle of road (Australia)”
Has no one asked why why she was praying in the middle of the road in the middle of the night?
maybe the behavior should be encouraged?
Anyone who ‘prays’ in the middle of the road is responsible for what happens to themselves.
That is just plain idiocy.
There were an infinite number of places she could have do=ne that. She chose the middle of a street!
So a couple of months ago I’m in a Walmart parking lot. I’ve just parked my car, and I’m walking towards the store.
And I pass this Middle Eastern guy. He’s kneeling on a prayer rug, praying. I guess it was a Muslim prayer time. His rug is not entirely in a driving lane. But it’s not completely out of one, either.
I sure can see someone not paying 100% attention hitting him.
(I grew up in Eisenhower’s America. I miss those days.)
What was she thinking of? Oh, that’s right she wasn’t.
This is Australia. Everybody else is guilty except the Nazi war criminals from Ukraine, Latvia, etc. they let in, in the 40’s and 50’s, members of the Khmer Rouge, the Afghan and Chilean secret police, the Serbs and Croats who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 1990s Balkans wars they welcomed, and muzzies by the score. And then covered it all up.
WHO was careless? THE DEAD ONE, not the driver.
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