Italian travel blogger Gabriele Cairo receives suspended sentence after triple fatal crash

The devastated wife of an Italian travel blogger responsible for the deaths of three people in a tragic crash has broken her silence.

Elena Perrone, speaking outside Adelaide District Court on Friday, wept as she stood next to her husband Gabriele Cairo.

“We’re just grateful this is over,” she said.

“We thank the family, we thank everyone and we’re glad we can go.”

Cairo was behind the wheel of a camper van when he smashed into the Clark family at a remote intersection in Everard Central, in South Australia’s mid-north region, on October 31, 2023.

Daughter Jacqueline, 54, who was driving a Honda civic, was killed instantly, while mother Cynthia, 84, died at the scene and father John, 86, died days later in hospital.

Ms Perrone also suffered critical injuries in the crash, including a collapsed lung and rib fractures, and she spent five days in the Royal Adelaide Hospital intensive care unit.

Cairo failed to give way at the intersection and he pleaded guilty to three counts of cause death by dangerous driving and one count of causing serious harm.

The Clark family has said they have forgiven Cairo for his devastating lapse in attention.

“I’ve said to them what I needed to say,” Ms Perrone said, her voice breaking.

“We talk, and that they understood and they forgive us.”

Cairo, who does not speak English, whispered to his wife, and she said he wanted to convey the same sentiments.

Judge Paul Muscat handed Cairo a prison sentence of three years and six months but suspended the sentence, meaning the pair walked free from the court and will return immediately to Italy.

Cairo and Ms Perrone both wept as Judge Muscat read out his sentence and the tragic circumstances of the crash.

“It is clear you are a man of exceptional quality and character,” Judge Muscat said.

“Your decency as a human being cannot be challenged.”

Cairo and Ms Perrone were travelling through Australia together on a honeymoon and were due to head back to Italy just days before the crash.

GPS data collected from Cairo’s phone showed he was travelling below the speed limit before the crash, which happened about 5.30pm, and he entered the intersection at 82km/h.

A witness to the crash said the Clarks’ Honda Civic lifted “about a metre” into the air and rotated after the collision.

The witness looked into the car and saw the terrible carnage.

“I remember, there was blood everywhere,” he said.

“He (Cairo) saw what had happened and just broke down in distress.”

Judge Muscat said Cairo was now a “shattered” young man and had received counselling for PTSD in the year since the crash.

A suspended sentence for an offence resulting in multiple deaths is uncommon, but Judge Muscat, in explaining his decision, said punishment should not exceed “moral culpability”.

“Arriving at a sentence in a particular case involves a balancing exercise of all relevant matters and the exercise of judgment,” he said.

“Sometimes the offender who commits the offence is a person who has never committed any previous offence in their life, such as yourself.

“They are otherwise of good character and standing in the community. “They have never set out intending to kill or cause injury to others by their dangerous driving, which is an important distinction to other serious criminal offences, where an offender’s intention, or state of mind, is a critical component of the offence charge and hence their moral culpability.

“There will be those cases where a driver deliberately drives dangerous, such as driving aggressively, recklessly or at an excessive speed … or driving dangerously while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or where they deliberately decide to run a red light, or engage with their phone … thereby clearly compromising, in all of these scenarios, the safety of another person.

“Those offenders are often imprisoned, for obvious reasons.

“This is not one of those cases, however.”

Judge Muscat said Cairo’s error lay in a failure to keep a proper lookout and respond to the Templeton Rd and Blyth Rd intersection itself or the give-way sign before it.

In a letter to the Clark family, Cairo said he wished he could “go back in time and do things differently” to avoid the collision but recognised “life does not work like that”.

“And so you did all that you could, which was to accept responsibility and apologise for the tragic outcome you have caused,” Judge Muscat said.

“You experience grief each day … it is fair to say you are a shattered young man going through a very difficult time.

“You have found it hard to forgive yourself, even though the family of those killed have forgiven you.”

The give way sign was stationed in the last 200m before the intersection, the court was told, and if the advisory sign was missed, all that warned a driver approaching the intersection was a single give way sign at the intersection itself.

Following the crash, the Department of Infrastructure conducted a review of the intersection and the road leading up to it and installed new infrastructure, including additional signs spaced out at intervals before the intersection.

“I accept these improvements highlight the shortcomings of the original signage at the time, although that does not relieve you of responsibility for driving dangerously,” Judge Muscat said.

The court was told Cairo had no recollection of the crash and could not explain why he did not give way.

Judge Muscat concluded Cairo’s moral culpability was at the “lower end” of offending.

“You did not deliberately drive dangerously and you certainly did not intend for any of this to happen,” he said.

“You are a good person who was enjoying life with your wife by your side when this tragedy occurred.

“There is no need, in your case, to consider personal deterrence as a sentencing consideration.”

Clark family friend John Reinke applauded Judge Muscat’s decision and said he would relay it to the Clark family.

“I think Judge Muscat has made the right decision,” he said outside court on Friday.

“There’s no point in sending somebody like him, Gabriele, to jail, there’s no rhyme or reasoning for that,” he said.

“I wish them all the best on their return to Italy. And we’ve all got to move forward, that’s all we can do.”

Mr Reinke said the Clarks were remembered in the community as “great people”.

“They will be really missed,” he said.

Cairo and Ms Perrone first arrived in Cairns and travelled 6000km across the country, visiting Brisbane, Byron Bay, Sydney, Uluru, Canberra and Melbourne before driving to Adelaide along the Great Ocean Rd.

The pair, who sometimes documented their travels, also visited Paris, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco.