Xiao Bo Zhang pleads not guilty over his involvement in fatal crash

A Geelong surgeon accused of causing a crash that claimed the life of a young woman has been ordered to stand trial.

Xiao Bo Zhang

A Geelong surgeon has been ordered to stand trial after pleading not guilty to charges over a fatal Swan Bay crash.

Xiao Bo Zhang pleaded not guilty in the Geelong Magistrates Court to dangerous driving causing death, as well as failing to give way before entering an intersection.

The May 20, 2022 accident claimed the life of Portarlington woman Rachel Watts.

Ms Watts groomed horses as a stalwart of the Australian eventing equestrian team for more than a decade, including at the Olympic Games.

Mr Zhang faced court on Wednesday for the second day of a committal hearing.

Police allege Mr Zhang was fatigued at the time he allegedly caused the fatal crash, however, Mr Zhang’s legal team called in a sleep expert to dispute the allegation.

Professor of sleep medicine at the University of Sydney, Professor Ron Grunstein was asked by Mr Zhang’s defence barrister, Ian Hill KC how fatigue manifests itself while driving.

“What I am looking at in sleep, you are kind of looking at a process that will eventually end up with someone falling asleep,” Mr Grunstein said.

“There is progressive drowsiness, and that eventually will start to manifest as small little bounces of someone falling asleep relatively at the end of that process.

Mr Grunstein said the brain was never in a uniformed state between fully asleep and fully awake.

“The construct of fatigue is something that varies from individual to individual,” he said.

The court was told Mr Zhang did not work during the day of the fatal crash, and worked two hours the day before, but worked about 11 hours two days before the incident.

Detective Senior Constable Melanie McFarlane, the lead informant in the matter, said she made inquiries regarding the design of the road following the crash.

The court was told rumble strips, speed reductions and duplications of warning signs had been installed at the intersection in February 2018 as part of proactive works following a fatal crash at the intersection in 2015.

Mr Hill also told the court Swan Bay Rd had previously reduced the speed limit on the road from 100 km/h to 80 km/h.

The matter was directed for trial at the County Court on October 4.

Originally published as Xiao Bo Zhang pleads not guilty over his involvement in fatal crash