After years of campaigning by his family and a rare intervention by the former attorney-general a long-awaited inquest into the death of 26-year-old Jari Wise has begun in Hobart. The former partner of Mr Wise has told the court, she had no idea she'd struck him with her car after they'd been arguing earlier that night.
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TVTranscript
00:00 "Best to the inquest! Justice for Jari!"
00:07 After campaigning tirelessly for years, even taking their fight straight to the Attorney-General,
00:14 friends and family of Jari Wise were finally able to attend an inquest into his death after
00:21 it got underway in Hobart this week. The young father died when a car driven by his on-again,
00:28 girlfriend Melissa Oates struck him near Hewanville in February 2020.
00:33 Both Melissa and Jari were subject to family violence orders at the time of his death.
00:39 "Justice for Jari!"
00:42 Ms Oates spent eight months in prison after being convicted of three driving offences,
00:47 but she was not found legally responsible for his death because it could not be ruled out
00:52 that he had jumped in front of her vehicle. Today the inquest heard from Ms Oates describing
00:58 how she had reacted on the night of the fatal incident. She told the court she heard a bang, saying,
01:06 "I didn't know if Jari had thrown something at my car or if it was just an animal. I just panicked."
01:13 The court was shown a photo of the vehicle after Mr Wise had been hit,
01:18 with significant damage to the left-hand side, including a shattered windscreen.
01:23 When asked about it, Ms Oates replied, "I didn't see my car. I didn't want to look at it."
01:29 The inquest was also told to neighbours heard Ms Oates tell a friend shortly after the crash
01:35 that she'd hit him and that he'd damaged her car, but she strongly denied this in court,
01:41 saying she wouldn't have said that because she didn't know what she'd hit.
01:45 Coroner Simon Cooper adjourned the proceedings and will now consider all of the evidence
01:50 before making written findings.
01:52 findings.
01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]