But Oudom Doeun's deadly adventure continued.
He ignored his passenger's pleas and, with his foot pressed down on the accelerator, sped up as he approached the lights.
Doeun applied the brakes 0.5 seconds before his BMW hurled into a silver Honda, which had been waiting to turn right at an intersection in Caulfield South, Melbourne's southeast.
Nepalese couple Santosh Adhikari, 32, and Pratima Thapa Adhikari, 22, were killed instantly as they drove home after finishing night shift at an aged care home.
Dramatic video footage showing Doeun's BMW speeding down North Road was played to the County Court on Monday, as the 25-year-old faced a pre-sentence hearing.
Doeun is facing up to two decades behind bars after pleaded guilty to two charges of culpable driving causing death.
Prosecutor Raphael De Vietri said Doeun's foot was pressed at 99 per cent onto the accelerator as he sped towards the traffic lights, on the evening of May 15, 2023.
"There's a red light, stop!" his friend, who was injured in the crash, told Doeun when he saw the traffic lights change.
The speed limit on that stretch of road is 70km/h, but Doeun was travelling at 190km/h five seconds before the crash and then 213km/h one second before.
The BMW was going 196km/h when it smashed into the victims' car, causing it to roll multiple times before coming to a rest upside down.
Puskal Bhusal said he was "shattered" when he found out his cousin and wife had been killed, as they had begun to build their lives in Australia together.
He detailed how Doeun's "deadly adventure" had caused widespread heartbreak and grief here and in Nepal.
A County Court judge said: "It's a deliberate choice to run the red light." (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)
"All of this because of one senseless man who decided to have an adventure of driving in the top speed in a suburban street," he told the court, between tears.
"If you had stopped at the red light, they could have been alive.
"We wish you never find peace in your life ever, which will be a fitting punishment."
Mr De Vietri said Doeun had made a conscious decision to run the red light when it was "almost inevitable that there would be catastrophic consequences".
"The warnings from the passenger are clear," he said.
"This is conscious, it's deliberate, and that relates to both the speed and driving through the light."
However, Doeun's barrister Philip Dunn KC said the deadly crash was a "fatal error of judgment" over a period of a few seconds.
"He's made a dreadful error," he said.
"While he's unable to explain his behaviour, he accepts it's his fault and his faults have had tragic circumstances."
Judge Jeanette Morrish said he appeared to have been driving at high speed through the traffic lights to beat the red light.
"It's a deliberate choice to run the red light," she said.
Doeun was "troubled" before the crash as his parents were unwell and he had picked up his friend to drive to the beach for a chat, Mr Dunn said.
He said Doeun, a nursing student, had accepted he must go to jail and will be deported back to Cambodia after his sentence.
Doeun, who was on bail, was taken into custody and will return to court on August 30 for his sentence.
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