A rubbish truck driver whose “hammerhead” maneuver brought about the loss of life of an aged Sydney girl has denied claims he drove dangerously.
Crown prosecutors have introduced prices towards Christopher Shayne Raymond Sultana after then 83-year-old Ruiming Zhang was run over in Chester Hill at 8.30am on February 23, 2021.
The now 34-year-old rubbish truck driver had been gathering bins alongside Woodland Highway and executed a three-point flip, additionally identified colloquially as a “hammerhead”, on the T-intersection with Gurney Highway so he might flip round and acquire the bins on the opposite facet of Woodland.
Prosecutor Ken Gilson mentioned Sultana had reversed his truck into the flawed facet of Gurney Highway earlier than turning again into Woodland Highway the place the right-hand facet of the massive car struck Ms Zhang.
“The preliminary affect knocked her to the bottom. She was then run over by each units of wheels of the truck. That is what brought about her loss of life,” he mentioned.
The Campbelltown man began working for waste administration agency JJ Richard & Sons 4 weeks earlier than the incident and had pushed the rubbish truck unsupervised for 2 days.
Within the judge-alone trial, which started on Monday in Sydney’s Downing Heart earlier than District Courtroom Choose Sophia Beckett, Sultana is going through one cost of harmful driving inflicting loss of life. He has pleaded not responsible.
He additionally faces three associated prices of negligent driving, disobeying a no proper flip sign, and never giving technique to a pedestrian.
The Crown argues the hammerhead maneuver was a severe breach of the right administration of a car and was so severe that it created an actual hazard to others.
Sultana’s choice to maneuver into the flawed lane lowered the period of time he would have needed to see Ms Zhang. He additionally did not activate his proper indicator and did not activate the right-hand facet car digicam to test whether or not a pedestrian was in his approach, Mr Gilson argued.
In an interview with police carried out the day of the accident, Sultana admitted that he had not seen Ms Zhang earlier than the affect.
Sultana’s barrister Phillip Boulten SC denied the way wherein his consumer had operated the truck was harmful.
“Might the accused have seen the deceased at an earlier time limit and never executed the flip? Maybe. Ought to he have? Perhaps, possibly not,” Mr Boulten informed the courtroom.
“If possibly, then any such failure we are saying is not more than negligence and positively not the type of severe breach of driving that’s required to be confirmed in a case below this provision.”
Whereas executing the flip, Sultana turned on the hazard lights which meant all 4 indicators had been flashing as was a light-weight on prime of the cab. The truck additionally set free a loud warning sound whereas it was reversing.
The accident occurred in seconds as Ms Zhang stepped out with out seeking to the left and, it appeared, made an assumption about what Sultana’s truck was going to do, Mr Boulten mentioned.
“It’s extremely doubtless that all through most if not all the flip, the pedestrian and the truck had been type of mirroring one another in order that the pedestrian by no means left the blind spot,” the barrister mentioned.
The truck driver had made the hammerhead flip many instances earlier than and had been suggested by his supervisors to proceed doing so, the courtroom heard.
It will have been too harmful for Sultana to manually flip between the completely different cameras on his car to test for potential pedestrians, as he would have needed to take his eyes off the highway, Mr Boulten mentioned.
Reversing onto the flawed facet of the highway was additionally safer, the barrister argued, because it lowered the prospect different autos would attempt to overtake the truck on the left or proper because it made the flip.
The trial continues.
