A Melbourne P-plate driver who allegedly travelled at almost double the speed limit on the wrong side of the road before hitting and killing a cyclist, wants to be a police officer.
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James Jonathon Guzman, 20, is accused of culpable driving causing the death of 28-year-old Jarryd Currie in Burnside Heights shortly before 12.30am on July 1.
During a Melbourne Magistrates Court bail application on Tuesday, lawyer Lisa Papadinas said in the weeks before the crash Guzman had resigned from his job to "make an application to enter the police force".
He was a devout evangelical Christian from a close-knit family and had no prior criminal history, she added.
With Guzman's next court date not due until November 6, Ms Papadinas urged Magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz to allow him to go home to his family, who were in court.
However prosecutors urged Ms Mykytowycz to look at the seriousness of the accident.
Detective Senior Constable Leigh Miller told court CCTV footage in the moments before the crash showed Guzman "accelerating at full throttle" on the wrong side of the road in an attempt to overtake the car in front of his.
Investigators believe he was likely travelling at about 109km/h and would have hit Mr Currie at 107km/h.
"The force was so great that his windscreen shattered and the roof of the vehicle collapsed," Det Sen Const Miller said.
Guzman stopped at the scene and told a woman who pulled over not to come near.
"(The woman) saw the deceased's foot protruding from the front of the car," Det Sen Const Miller said.
Guzman later explained there was another car in front of him "then all of a sudden he saw a bicycle helmet then stopped", discovering the victim under the car.
Mr Currie's three sisters and father cried in court as the details were recounted.
Ms Mykytowycz adjourned the matter until Thursday to further consider the "difficult decision".
Australian Associated Press
