A court case hearing evidence of a South Gippsland crash that killed a mother and son has been adjourned after it was revealed "highly relevant" documents about the state of the road were not made available to the defence.
Bass resident Wayne Poulton, 61, is charged with causing the death of Korumburra woman Erin Wilson, 33 and her son Bane, 8, after his utility vehicle ran into the back of their car, pushing them into the path of an oncoming truck.
The court is considering whether the prosecution has enough evidence to support the charges to require Mr Poulton to enter pleas and potentially face trial.
His defence lawyer Zarah Garde-Wilson on Tuesday argued for an adjournment of the case after it was revealed the Department of Transport was yet to provide information about the condition of the road, upgrade plans and the number of incidents on the stretch of road where Ms Wilson died.
"This is highly relevant in relation to this incident... there's a huge hole in this investigation," she said.
The Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court heard the Department of Transport told a police informant in the case that it had prepared legal documents in August last year but was awaiting a subpoena from the defence.
The Crown's lawyer, Shivani Pillai, agreed to the adjournment, saying they were unaware of the documents' existence.
The court on Monday heard evidence from several witnesses including two police investigators, the driver of the truck and two drivers on the road that day.
Ms Wilson's family and partner attended the hearing, where witnesses were shown body-mounted camera footage of emergency responders which showed a lone tyre near where the crash happened.
Wet road, 'shithole' conditions
Detective Senior Constable Michael Hardiman told the court the weather had no bearing on his assessment of the crash, even though the road was wet.
He told the court the ute was travelling along the South Gippsland Highway at a speed of between 65km/h and 75km/h when it hit the back of Ms Wilson's black Holden Cruze.
He told the court Mr Poulton had come over a crest about 100m away from where Ms Wilson was stopped, waiting to turn right into a driveway.
The court heard another witness had described the state of the roads leading up to the accident as "shithole", but Senior Constable Hardiman said he did not find evidence of potholes along the stretch where the crash happened.
Truck driver takes the stand
Kevin Fechner was behind the wheel of the Volvo truck involved in the crash.
He said he was between 20m and 40m from the car when it "darted" into his lane after it was hit by the ute.
The court heard Mr Fechner told officers on the day of the crash the driver of the ute had no opportunity to evade the car.
"I don't think the driver of this car had a chance to take evasive action," he initially said.
But the next day, Mr Fechner changed his statement.
"It's not that he had no chance, it's that he didn't take any action at all," he later stated.
The hearing is set to resume on June 6.
