{"id":616804,"date":"2026-04-19T09:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T09:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616804\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T09:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T09:22:08","slug":"learner-driver-charged-over-supanova-expo-death-at-melbourne-showgrounds-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616804\/","title":{"rendered":"Learner driver charged over Supanova expo death at Melbourne showgrounds | Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A learner driver has been charged with killing a pedestrian after a car ploughed into a group outside a popular comic convention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A 20-year-old man died and another man the same age was seriously injured when a Toyota sedan mounted the kerb outside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/melbourne\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Melbourne<\/a> Showgrounds in Ascot Vale just before 5pm on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">An off-duty officer and a member of the public intervened and arrested the driver after the car struck the duo and continued along the footpath, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The incident happened outside the Supanova Comic Con &amp; Gaming event, a two-day fan convention hosted at the showgrounds.<\/p>\n<p><a data-link-name=\"standard link button Primary\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=copyembed&amp;CMP=emailbutton\" class=\"dcr-svb9qg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">On Sunday, a 33-year-old Werribee man was charged with dangerous driving causing death and culpable driving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He was unlicensed with only a learner permit, and further charges were expected, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The accused driver was due to appear before Melbourne magistrates court on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The state premier, Jacinta Allan, described the crash as a \u201ctragic incident that should never have happened\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cMy heart goes out to the family and loved ones of the individual who has been tragically killed \u2026 it would have been an incredibly distressing incident,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A third young was with the struck duo but managed to avoid the oncoming car and escaped without injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A minute\u2019s silence was held at the fan convention on Sunday as organisers offered their condolences in response to the tragedy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe here at Supanova Comic Con &amp; Gaming are deeply saddened and distressed by the incident that occurred outside the Melbourne Showgrounds,\u201d they said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cOur thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the unspeakable tragedy that has happened on our doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The minute\u2019s silence was initially planned for 10am, before doors opened, but was later pushed back to midday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Thousands of comic and gaming fans flock to Supanova every year, with the Melbourne event adding crowds of visitors to an already-busy area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">World-famous celebrities, including Stranger Things cast member Jamie Campbell Bower and Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in Peter Jackson\u2019s Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, headlined the expo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A learner driver has been charged with killing a pedestrian after a car ploughed into a group outside&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-616804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}