Trial starts for Lamborghini driver Alexander Campbell – charged over death of Sophia Naismith
The moment a man who allegedly lost control of his $330k supercar and killed a teenager has been revealed in court along with his words to police in the aftermath.
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A driver who crashed his luxury car, killing a teenage girl and injuring her friend, told police in his interview after the crash he panicked when it started losing control.
Alexander Damian Campbell, 37, is standing trial for causing the death of Sophia Naismith, 15, by dangerous driving and injuring her friend on Morphett Rd, Glengowrie, on June 22, 2019.
Mr Campbell was behind the wheel of a $330,000 white 2016 Lamborghini Huracan, which he had owned for almost five months at the time of the crash.
He has pleaded guilty to aggravated driving without due care but denies he was driving dangerously.
Opening Mr Campbell’s trial in the Adelaide District Court on Friday, Kos Lesses, prosecuting, told the court Mr Campbell “harshly accelerated”, lost control of his car, which was in sport mode, and crashed into the two girls.
The court heard Ms Naismith hit the windscreen, while her friend was flung six metres and sustained leg and foot injuries.
“The Lamborghini … would not have suddenly lost control by itself while driving in a straight line at 53km/h,” Mr Lesse said.
Relatives and supporters of Ms Naismith’s family, who were wearing red ribbons on their shirts, wept as Mr Campbell’s police interview after the crash was played to the court.
“I was accelerating back up to speed and then I went to change a gear and it just went around,” Mr Campbell told a police officer in the interview.
“I couldn’t even stop it … I just panicked.
“It just went up straight up the kerb … it just kept sliding.”
Mr Campbell told police he hadn’t realised he’d hit the girls until he saw them lying on the footpath.
“I was just trying to comfort her (Ms Naismith) and tell her it was OK,” he said.
Mr Campbell told the officer he knew how powerful the car was and said “I normally put it in like a sport mode and the traction control isn’t on when I drive it”.
However, he told the officer his driving before the crash was “nothing out of the ordinary” and didn’t believe it was dangerous.
Mr Campbell sobbed in the interview as the police officer told him that Ms Naismith had died.
When asked by the officer if there was anything else he’d like to say, Mr Campbell replied “I’m sorry. I didn’t do anything stupid, I didn’t mean for this to happen”.
Multiple videos were also played to the court which showed Mr Campbell driving the Lamborghini with the number plate ‘PSYKO’ on the night of the crash in sport mode.
Mr Lesse told the court Mr Campbell was witnessed by five people “fishtailing” around the corner of Elizabeth Way and Main North Rd only hours before the crash, on his way to a car show at Marion.
“He went through the intersection at speed … and as it went through the intersection it fishtailed and momentarily lost control,” he said.
“It’s no coincidence that’s exactly what it did when it lost control at the Morphett Rd collision scene.”
Mr Lesse said the Lamborghini was also fitted with tyres not suited to cold weather, particularly under 7C, when it was 6C on the night of the crash.
Craig Caldicott, for Mr Campbell, told the court they accepted most of the factual evidence but the issue was what happened in the one to two seconds before the crash.
On Friday afternoon, Judge Paul Muscat was taken on a view of the crash site.
The judge-alone trial continues.
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