Jenny was killed 100 metres from home. The driver was fined $2000

It was a clear August afternoon in 2024, and Jenny Hombsch was making her way home after visiting a neighbour.

Despite having a hip injury, Jenny loved to walk around her suburb of Baxter, on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula – often taking the family’s dog, Ollie, out twice a day. Since retiring, there was also more time for travel. She and husband Steve were in the midst of planning a caravan trip across the country.

But the couple never made it on that trip. Just 100 metres from home, a car exiting the nearby freeway struck Jenny, 68, as she was crossing the street. Paramedics arrived quickly, but she died a short time later.

Jenny’s son, Daniel Hombsch, said his mother was a kind, caring and selfless person. Raised on a farm near Adelaide, she later moved to the Mornington Peninsula with her husband to raise Daniel and his brother, Michael.

“She was a very determined, very stoic woman … I was very blessed to have really good parents, especially Mum,” Daniel said. “My brother and I were probably the most significant thing to her. And she always put us first.”

In 2025, the driver involved in Jenny’s death pleaded guilty to a single charge of careless driving of a motor vehicle. She was eventually fined $2000 with a conviction in the Frankston Magistrates’ Court and had her licence suspended for six months.

The woman behind the wheel – who was 64 at the time of the crash – wasn’t impaired by drugs or alcohol, she wasn’t using a phone, and wasn’t speeding.

The court found she had simply failed to operate her vehicle with the care and attention expected of a reasonable person.

The maximum penalty for a first offence of this kind in Victoria is $2509, rising to $5227 for any subsequent offences.

The offence does not carry a prison term or mandatory licence disqualification, although a magistrate can suspend or cancel a driver’s licence. Nor can the maximum fine be increased when careless driving results in a death.

Daniel, now a lawyer who works at a community legal centre, understands the driver didn’t intend to hit his mother, but, years later, he still struggles to accept the sentence.

“Regardless of the victim’s age or gender or what they did for work or their personal circumstances, I don’t see how it can be just to put a $2000 cost on someone’s life,” Daniel said.

Careless driving that results in death is distinct from the more serious offences of dangerous driving causing death or culpable driving causing death.

A person found guilty of dangerous driving causing death faces a maximum of 10 years’ prison, while someone found guilty of culpable driving causing death can be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years.