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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Nick Bielby

Man to be sentenced over fatal crash at Tea Gardens

The turn off to Viney Creek Road West on the Pacific Highway, near where the double fatal occurred. Picture Google Maps

A man who lost control of his work ute, which careered to the wrong side of the Pacific Highway and killed two people at Tea Gardens, will be sentenced in July.

Shane Colin Ambrosoli, 60, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of negligent driving occasioning death.

Ambrosoli, who remains on bail, was due to be sentenced in Raymond Terrace Local Court on Wednesday, but the matter was mentioned in front of Magistrate Justin Peach on Monday when the court heard there had been a problem obtaining a Sentencing Assessment Report.

The Krambach man was given a new sentence date of July 3.

According to a statement of agreed facts, the electrical meter reader was on his way from Forster to Hawks Nest as part of his job just after 1.30pm on March 24, 2022, when he lost control of his work vehicle - an Isuzu D-max ute - while heading south along the Pacific Highway.

The vehicle crossed an 8m-wide median strip and hit a motorbike, which threw the male rider and killed him.

The motorbike was pushed into the side of a van in the next lane, which rolled into a safety barrier.

The woman driving the van died at the scene and her passenger - a woman in a wheelchair - sustained minor injuries.

The statement of agreed facts said Ambrosoli was driving within the speed limit and had no alcohol or illicit drugs in his system, but he was driving too fast when considering the "persistent" rain at the time of the crash and that there had been heavy falls in the lead-up.

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