A Lamborghini driver who struck and killed a 15-year-old girl and injured her friend "virtually admitted" to dangerous driving in a police interview, a court heard.
Alexander Campbell, 37, is on trial in the District Court after pleading not guilty to killing Sophia Naismith and injuring another teenage girl by dangerous driving.
Sophia and her then-15-year-old friend were walking along Morphett Road in Adelaide's southern suburbs to a friend's house in June 2019 when they were hit by the out-of-control Lamborghini Huracan.
The car also mounted the kerb and crashed into a Glengowrie restaurant.
The District Court heard Sophia hit the windscreen, while the other girl was flung six metres and sustained leg and foot injuries.
The prosecutor opening the trial, Kos Lesses, told the court Mr Campbell drove dangerously by suddenly and deliberately accelerating with the car in a sports mode — which was not the safest mode to drive the high-performance car.
"Apart from denying any harsh acceleration, the admissions of the accused actually accord with the prosecution case on dangerous driving due to sudden and deliberate driver input," Mr Lesses told the court.
Campbell knew tyres 'prone to slipping': prosecutor
Judge Paul Muscat viewed the scene where the crash occurred on Friday afternoon.
Mr Campbell was driving home to Elizabeth North with his wife from a car show at Marion when the fatal crash occurred.
He was arrested at the Flinders Medical Centre hours later.
The court was shown the police interview from that night where a distraught Mr Campbell said he did not believe he was driving dangerously – and that neither speed nor alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash.
"I was accelerating back up to speed and I went to change gear and it just went around, it was so fast, like literally I just couldn't even stop it, I didn't even know what to do, I just panicked," he told an officer through tears in the video.
"You don't have to do anything in that car like I literally was coming around the corner the other day and it was cold tyres and the thing just slid … and you can't stop it."
He told police he got out of the car and tried to comfort one of the girls lying on the ground "who wasn't moving".
The video showed Mr Campbell crying, speaking incoherently, and wiping his eyes when the officer told him a 15-year-old girl had died.
"I'm sorry; I didn't do anything stupid and I didn't mean for this to happen," he told the officer.
Mr Lesses told the court that was an admission Mr Campbell knew the car was "prone to slipping out and losing control" in the sports mode he drove the vehicle in.
"He said he was coming around the corner the other day and 'that was cold tyres, the thing just slipped … it just slipped out and you can't stop it," Mr Lesses said.
"The fact that he knew that goes to his culpability of dangerous driving."
Mr Lesses said police had seized a digital camera from the vehicle which showed Mr Campbell "deliberately" turning the vehicle into sports mode and the Electronic Stability Mode off as he switched on the car that night.
Supercar expert to be called as witness
The court heard Luke Youlden — a supercar driver and instructor — would give evidence during the trial that it would have been "very difficult" for the car to lose control if it were being driven in the safer "street" mode.
"He will say for the Lamborghini to lose control in the way that it did, it must've been in sport or corsa mode and subject to … aggressive throttle input," Mr Lesses said.
Mr Campbell's lawyer Craig Caldicott told the court he accepted most of the factual evidence in the case.
"The real issue for the court is to determine what happened in that effectively one or two seconds from Bells Road to the Chinese Restaurant," he said.
The court also heard five witnesses saw Mr Campbell "fishtail" the car at a busy northern Adelaide intersection earlier that night as he drove "at speed".
The trial before Judge Paul Muscat continues.
