A hit-run driver extradited from Adelaide for killing a bike rider while driving in Los Angeles has been sentenced to seven years jail.
Andrea Dorothy Chan, 35, received the maximum penalty after pleading guilty.
Although the crash occurred in Whittier, Los Angeles, more than four years ago, Chan evaded arrest by fleeing to Hong Kong before hiding out in Adelaide.
Chan was driving a white Lexus sedan that struck Agustin Rodriguez Jr. while he was riding his bike.
The 46-year-old man died at the scene of multiple blunt force injuries, according to the coroner’s office. Rodriguez was dragged under the car for a considerable distance.
Chan fled the scene, claimed she hit a deer, had her vehicle repaired and stored in Idaho, before leaving the USA.
Chan — also known as also known as Andrea Dorothy Reyes and Andrea Dorothy Reyes Chan — was arrested in Adelaide in April 2018 but extradition back to the US took another two and a half years.
Australians have been critical of the slow and clumsy extradition processes in countries where people who have committed offences in Australia are trying to hide from justice.
Puneet Puneet, who absconded from Australia to India in 2009 while waiting trial over the death of a pedestrian in Melbourne, is still fighting extradition more than a decade later.
Australia needs to ensure that this nation cannot be used as a refuge for those attempting to evade the consequences of road violence.
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