A jury has found a South Australian truck driver guilty of dangerous driving that led to the death of a Victorian cyclist.
Amala Paulson, faced Horsham County Court for hitting 24-year-old Horsham cyclist Liam Batson on December 19, 2019, with the B-double truck she was driving from Adelaide to Melbourne.
The jury found Paulson, who was 30 at the time of the collision, guilty of one count of dangerous driving causing death, one count of failing to stop and one count of failing to render assistance, all of which she pleaded not guilty to.
Mr Batson, a father of two, was riding his racing bike east into Horsham city centre on a section of the Western Highway known as Dimboola Road when he was hit by Paulson's truck heading in the same direction.
The collision, near the intersection of Obrees Rd, happened at 6:24am and threw Mr Batson forward from his bicycle onto the side of the road, where he died.
The court heard that Paulson did not stop when she collided with Mr Batson but pulled up about a kilometre further on at Horsham Secondary College, a common place for truck drivers to stop, to stretch her legs.
'Came out of nowhere'
The jury heard from Mitchell Forbes, a truck driver who overtook Mr Batson minutes before he was hit by Paulson's truck.
Mr Forbes testified that Mr Batson was cycling about 40 centimetres inside the left lane on a bend in the road and that "[Mr Batson] came out of nowhere".
Mr Forbes told the jury he was on a conference call with his friends and told them something to the effect of "this bloke is going to get killed" because Mr Batson was cycling too far to the right on a major freight route where the speed limit was 100 km/h.
The court also heard from Detective Senior Constable Melanie MacFarlane, a collision reconstruction expert who went to the scene.
She said fibres from Mr Batson's cycling top were found in the bitumen but there were no tyre marks, gouges, or scrapes on the road, or truck debris to collect.
She told the court the debris left by the bicycle and rider only indicated where Mr Batson landed, not where or how the collision occurred.
Senior Constable McFarlane said, based on the evidence, she could only conclude that the collision happened on the left side of the traffic lane but she could not say which side of the fog line Mr Batson was hit.
Another prosecution witness, Detective Sargent Matthew Hunt, showed the court video of scuff marks on the bottom of the bull bar of the truck Paulson was driving he said were consistent with the position of the racing bike's sprocket.
'Prolonged inattention' to road
Prosecutor Andrew McKenry told the court Paulson had at least 30 seconds to see Mr Batson and pass him safely as she was driving on a straight road on a clear day with good visibility.
"Any driver maintaining a proper lookout must've seen that cyclist," he said.
He said that indicated "prolonged inattention" but the defence argued that was speculation.
"It's not a cyclist's job to stay out of the way of other vehicles" and there was "nothing inappropriate" about Mr Batson's riding that could have contributed to the collision, Mr McKenny told the court.
The defence, led by Campbell Thomson, emphasised the lack of evidence about how the truck and bicycle collided or what Paulson heard or knew when the impact happened.
Mr Thomson also emphasised Paulson's good driving record, lack of prior convictions and her cooperation with the investigation.
He said that at the time of the collision Paulson was slowing in line with the changing speed limit and had done nothing to indicate she was driving erratically or dangerously.
Mr Thomson said Paulson gave police full access to her driving logs and mobile phone, which showed nothing that indicated she was aware she was involved in a collision.
Mr Thomson also told the court that just because someone was killed in the collision does not mean the driving of the accused was dangerous.
Paulson was remanded to be sentenced at a date to be set.
