SA Court of Appeal dismisses Cleanaway’s challenge to convictions over failing to train driver in 2014 SE Freeway smash
Eleven years after two people died in the horrific South Eastern Freeway crash involving a sewage truck, the court has finally ruled on Cleanaway’s last bid to avoid a $3m fine.
Australia’s biggest waste management company will be held to account for a horror truck crash in which two people died, after failing in its final bid to avoid a $3m fine.
On Thursday – 11 years since the deaths of Tom Spiess and Jacqui Byrne at the bottom of the South-Eastern Freeway – the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment on Cleanaway.
Having deliberated for almost three years, President Mark Livesey, Justice David Lovell and Justice Chris Bleby dismissed the company’s challenges to its convictions.
Cleanaway now stands liable to pay up to $3m for having failed to properly train the driver of the 8000L truck that hit Mr Spiess and Ms Byrne at 151km/h.
However, that maximum will apply only if Commonwealth prosecutors seek to have the case transferred to the District Court, as the Magistrates Court has an upper limit on fines.
The crash, in August 2014, killed Ms Byrne and Mr Spiess, and injured Cleanaway truck driver Darren Hicks and motorist Louise Compton.
Criminal charges against Cleanaway were dropped in 2017, and against Mr Hicks in 2018, following expert evidence that the truck’s brakes had failed, meaning it could not be stopped.
The court subsequently heard Cleanaway’s maintenance company, Adelaide Heavy Diesel, had warned the manual transmission truck’s brakes were faulty 25 days before the crash.
In 2019, Commonwealth authorities charged Cleanaway with having failed to properly train Mr Hicks prior to the incident.
Mr Hicks – who went on to success as a Paralympian – was granted immunity from prosecution and gave evidence against the company.
He said he obtained his heavy vehicle licence in a two-day course a month before the crash, had only driven trucks with automatic transmissions and never on the Freeway.
Mr Hicks told the court he had a full load of sewage and was “standing” on the brakes, to no effect, trying to slow down.
“Within seconds an alarm sounded … that alarm (meant) there was no air in the brakes to use,” he said in his evidence.
“I couldn’t change gears, the truck was going too fast to change down gears – it wouldn’t shift.
“I had already passed both of the arrestor beds before I needed to use the foot brakes.”
In 2021, the company was found to have failed to properly trained Mr Hicks.
Cleanaway appealed that decision, saying the same expert evidence that ended the criminal charges should also absolve it of any responsibility.
That succeeded in overturning six of the eight guilty verdicts and avoiding $12 million in fines, but remained liable to pay $1.5 million per remaining conviction.
In November 2022, Cleanaway lodged a second appeal seeking a complete acquittal.
In its judgment on Thursday, the Court of Appeal said it found no invalidity in the prosecution nor error by the magistrate who recorded the convictions.
“Cleanaway had no clear system for evaluating Mr Hicks’ competence,” it said.
“It could have kept him in trucks with automatic transmission, or operating with the assistance of a buddy, until his competence to drive a vacuum truck with a manual transmission on his own down a descent such as the Freeway had been properly evaluated.”
It remitted the matter to the Magistrates Court for sentencing.
