Woman thrown 80m in fatal hit-and-run by speeding drunk driver, Melbourne court told.

By Emma Younger.

A young woman was thrown 80 metres when she was hit and killed by a speeding drunk driver in West Melbourne last July, a court has been told.

Tanami Nayler, 24, was killed instantly when she was struck by a stolen car speeding through a pedestrian crossing against a red light.

The Victorian County Court was told during a pre-sentence hearing that New Zealand national Nicholas Davison, 23, was driving at 152 kilometres per hour when he hit Ms Nayler and the impact threw her body into the next intersection.

Davison last year pleaded guilty to numerous charges, including culpable driving causing death.

On Wednesday, the court heard the Sydney woman was visiting a friend in Melbourne, who told police he heard a car screeching before Ms Nayler said “Oh my God” and the car hit her without stopping.

“I couldn’t see where she went, she just wasn’t there anymore,” her friend said.

Prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams said Ms Nayler was walking slightly ahead of her friend and only noticed the speeding car once it was too late.

“She attempted to run to avoid the vehicle, but there was no time to avoid being struck,” he said.

Davison had stolen the car from a rental outlet in the CBD after he was denied entry to a nightclub nearby, the court heard.

It is estimated he had a blood alcohol concentration four times the legal limit at the time of the crash.

Family mourn ‘vibrant, beautiful’ woman

A number of Ms Nayler’s relatives were in court today for the hearing.

Her mother, Vivien Nayler, read a victim impact statement to the court in which she described her only child as an intelligent, artistic and witty girl.

“Tanny was my world, I couldn’t have loved her any more than I did,” she said.

“We’ll mourn this vibrant, beautiful girl for the rest of our lives.”

The court was told Davison’s catastrophic behaviour had shocked his family and friends who knew him as a youth leader at his local church and a role model in the workplace.

His lawyer, Ian Hill QC, said he Davison had struggled with binge drinking which could be explained in part by issues he faced with his sexuality.

“Something exploded that night from a young man who’d never committed an offence before,” he said.

Davison will be sentenced next month.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.