Let's Pray in the Road. Nothing Could Go Wrong.

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A young driver who hit and killed a woman kneeling, with her hands in a praying motion, on a road in Adelaide's north-east has avoided jail.

Ashton Friend, 20, of Banksia Park, previously pleaded guilty to causing death by careless use of a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident after causing the death of 20-year-old international student Samia Malik.

South Australia's District Court previously heard Ms Malik had been kneeling on North East Road at Hillcrest for around four minutes before she was hit by Friend's car about 11pm on May 6, 2025.

In sentencing Friend on Tuesday, Judge Anne Barnett said CCTV vision showed Ms Malik's hands were in what looked like a "praying motion".

No other explanation has been given as to why the 20-year-old was on the road.

It also heard that Friend had not seen Ms Malik nor realised he had hit her when he was driving home from his girlfriend's house.

"He was absolutely at a loss about what had just happened. He hadn't been aware that there was something on the road. He heard this noise," defence barrister Jane Abbey KC had submitted to the court.

"What he hoped was that it had been an animal, or something like that."

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