Nonsense...I don’t know why he was granted bail but suggest it was because he was not judged to be a fight risk by VicPol ( no passport), hid young age just outside of the age to be sentenced as a minor, and the then presumption of bail as one of the few rights we have under the law (innocent unruly proven guilty).
attitudes towards culpable driving have hardened significantly in recent years...nothing much happened at all in the early 1960s when I was a young idiot on the road. Everyone drank, no RBT, had to prove drunk, not much more than a loss of licence if actually caught.
no excuses, just an explanation.