Court told accused driver Sung-Hung Ko may have fallen asleep at time of fatal crash near Nuriootpa

A TAIWANESE man accused of causing a crash which killed a woman near Nuriootpa in August 2014 may have fallen asleep while driving, his lawyers claim.

20/4/16 Sung-Hung Ko outside District Court, accused of causing a fatal crash at Nuriootpa, faces Dictrict Court trial today.

A TAIWANESE man accused of causing a crash which killed a woman near Nuriootpa in August 2014 may have fallen asleep while driving, his lawyers claim.

Sung-Hung KO, 28, is standing trial in the District Court accused of causing the death of Harvinder Kaur on the Sturt Hwy, about 2km from Nuriootpa, on August 19, 2014.

He has previously pleaded guilty to aggravated driving without due care over the crash.

Opening the trial, prosecutor Amelia Cairney, told the court the sole issue at trial was “whether the accused was driving in a manner dangerous to the public” and thereby caused the death of Mrs Kaur.

“The prosecution case is that the manner of driving at the time of the collision extended beyond a minor, momentary lapse of judgment,” Ms Cairney said.

She said Mrs Kaur was heading to Waikerie from Adelaide where she had been visiting family.

KO, who arrived in Australia in February 2014 and was staying at a Swan Reach backpackers hostel while picking potatoes, was travelling to Adelaide.

The court heard KO had crossed from his side of the road, and crashed head-on into Mrs Kaur in the oncoming lane, causing her car to crash into a guard rail.

“The accused took no appropriate evasive action to avoid the collision,” Ms Cairney said.

She said there were no eyewitnesses to the crash.

Major Crash investigator senior constable John Hong told the court the accused was travelling at about 90km/h while Mrs Kaur was driving at about 100km/h on impact.

He said there were no road marks to indicate KO had braked to avoid the crash, and Mrs Kaur’s car had ABS brakes which did not leave any marks.

“She may have been braking but we can’t tell that. It appears she moved to the left (in an attempt to avoid the crash),” he said.

Defence lawyer Michael Lloyd suggested to senior constable Hong it was possible his client had fallen asleep.

In response, constable Hong said, while he could not be 100 per cent certain, it was unlikely.

“Based on my experience and based on the files that I have read, the position of the vehicles, the layout of the road, it is not consistent with someone falling asleep,” he said.

“I cannot be 100 per cent certain, no.”

He said people who fell asleep while driving tended to drift to the left hand side of the road, rather than the centre and into oncoming traffic. If they did turn into oncoming traffic while asleep, he said the “angle on impact with oncoming vehicles tends to be steeper”.

Mr Lloyd told the court his client did not have any memory of the crash and would not be called to give evidence. KO spent two months in the Royal Adelaide Hospital recovering.

Judge David Smith, who is presiding over the trial without a jury, has retired to consider his verdict.