Accused Stanwell ambulance fatal crash driver Timothy Lee Wilson trial ends
The move comes as a trial into the fatal Stanwell ambulance crash in 2021 entered its fourth day.
Rockhampton
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The jury presiding over a trial about the Stanwell ambulance fatal crash from October 2021 has been discharged.
They were discharged after informing the court they were unable to reach a verdict after Timothy Lee Wilson pleaded not guilty to one count of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing the death of 65-year-old Maryborough nurse Ray Wyeth and 87-year-old patient Martyn House who were in the back of the ambulance.
The ambulance was stationary, having pulled up at a red light for road works on the Capricorn Highway just after noon on October 11, 2021.
The trial had run for 3.5 days before the jury was discharged.
Mr Wilson’s matter has been adjourned to March 31 and his bail was enlarged.
Truck drivers caught up in crash recall moment of fatal collision
“I had to pick myself up off the floor”.
This was the moment a seat belt-wearing truck driver, towing two tanks of residual amounts of dangerous goods, realised there had been a crash behind him.
Adam Bentley, who has been driving trucks for 20-odd years, was working for Crawfords when he pulled up in a queue of vehicles waiting at temporary traffic lights set up for road maintenance work on the Capricorn Highway on October 11, 2021.
On Tuesday afternoon, he gave witness evidence to a jury presiding over the trial of Timothy Lee Wilson, who has pleaded not guilty to one count of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing the death of 65-year-old Maryborough nurse Ray Wyeth and 87-year-old patient Martyn House who were in the back of the ambulance.
The Rockhampton District Court heard from three truck drivers impacted by the fatal crash on day two of the trial.
They were towing empty trailers that had been loaded with dangerous goods that morning - fuel and ammonium nitrate.
Mr Bentley said he had the truck sitting in neutral and his foot on the brake one minute and the next he was half off his seat and half on the floor, describing the impact as “a bit more than a jolt”.
“Suddenly everything was everywhere,” he said about his belongings in the cabin of the truck.
Joshua Barrett, who started driving trucks for a living in 2007 and works for Emerald Carrying Company, was ahead of Mr Bentley in the queued traffic.
He said he had stopped for maybe 30 seconds before he felt a vibration through his steering wheel and then a dull thud.
“I noticed in the rear-vision mirror just the truck up in the air coming down on its side,” Mr Barrett said.
He said he had his foot off the brake when he had stopped and his truck rolled two to three metres forward as a result of the crash behind him.
Rohan Hansen, who also only had residual of ammonium nitrate in his tanks, was behind Mr Barrett’s truck and in front of Mr Bentley’s.
Mr Bentley said once he picked himself up, he put the brakes on in the truck and exited to help people.
“The first thing I saw was the defendant hanging out of his wreck,” he said.
Daniel McGarry, who works in the construction industry and was driving in the opposite direction when he came across the crash, described to the jury how Mr Wilson was half hanging out of the windscreen, agitated, and asking for people to help him get out.
Mr Bentley left the scene in an ambulance while the others went on their way back to work.
Paramedic, wardsman recall harrowing fatal ambulance, truck crash
Two health workers who survived a fatal crash where a truck collided with the ambulance they were travelling in have recalled the harrowing few seconds they had between noticing the truck heading straight for them and the time they had to brace for impact.
Advanced care paramedic Ashley O’Conner and now former wardsman at Biloela Hospital Noel Barry gave evidence in day two of a trial over the incident in Rockhampton District Court on Tuesday.
Timothy Lee Wilson, the driver of the truck that crashed into the ambulance at roadworks on the Capricorn Highway near Stanwell in 2021, has pleaded not guilty to one count of dangerous operation of the truck causing the death of 65-year-old Maryborough nurse Ray Wyeth and 87-year-old patient Martyn House who were in the back of the ambulance.
Mr O’Conner was the driver of the ambulance on that fateful day, October 11, and Mr Barry was in the back of the ambulance with Mr Wyeth and Mr House.
Both Mr O’Conner and Mr Barry recalled seeing at least one road sign each with Mr O’Conner not recalling which one and Mr Barry telling the jury he recalled seeing a ‘prepare to stop’ sign.
Mr O’Conner said he had slowed down after coming around a corner on a hill and seeing the traffic lights ahead, stopping about six metres from the back of a B Double in the queue.
“My immediate actions were to look into the driver’s side rear view mirror and that’s when I saw a truck come up over the hill,” he said.
“My initial reaction was that it looked like it was coming way too fast to the queued traffic.
“I’ve then seen the truck veer towards the centre of the road.
“Realising that something wasn’t right, I didn’t have time to yell out, but I’ve grabbed and braced my own head.”
Mr Barry’s recollection was similar as he was buckled into a seat in the back of the ambulance, to the right of Mr House who was strapped into a stretcher.
He said once the ambulance stopped, he turned to look out the back window and saw the trucking coming towards them and only had time to put his hand up in an effort to alert Mr O’Conner.
Mr Barry said the truck collided with the right hand side of the ambulance with “the back driver’s side taken out all the way up to the front driver’s door”.
Both men recalled the ambulance going into a spin to the left, with Mr O’Conner saying they spun a number of times with “loud bangs and crashes” but could not recall how many.
Mr Barry said the ambulance spun “staying on it’s wheels all the way”, across the road, up an embankment and facing back up to the embankment when it stopped.
When Mr O’Conner looked around him after the ambulance stopped spinning, he did a quick check for injuries on himself and his passenger to his left, called out to those in the back getting a response from Mr Barry.
He then attempted to call for help on the radio unsuccessfully and then using a handheld device.
Meanwhile, Mr Barry said he had a bruised shoulder and legs, and had a bleeding elbow, as he was pushed forward into the stretcher during the collision.
He checked on Mr Wyeth and Mr House – neither had a pulse.
Mr O’Conner got out of the ambulance and went to physically check on those in the back and Mr Barry went to check on the front passenger, who he described as being agitated and wanting to get out of the vehicle.
Mr O’Conner went to aid others involved in the crash, having the driver of the B Double in front of the ambulance point out the driver of the truck that crashed into them as the driver walked along the road.
He said the walking driver – Mr Wilson – asked him if he saw any signs.
Mr O’Conner said he did not reply to this question.
Mr Barry recalls leaving the scene 30 minutes later.
The trial continues.
‘Dreadful’: Pensioner recalls seeing ambulance flip in fatal crash with truck
A jury has heard of the moment a pensioner, stopped at roadworks on the Capricorn Highway, heard a “dreadful” crash before looking into her rear view mirror and watching an ambulance turn over, before landing on its wheels in the grass.
Mackay’s Heather Arnold, who was on her way home from Biloela, told the jury in Rockhampton District Court of this experience as she gave witness evidence on day one of a trial over a fatal crash between an ambulance and truck at Stanwell on October 11, 2021.
The truck driver, Timothy Lee Wilson, 42, has pleaded not guilty to one count of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing the death of 65-year-old Maryborough nurse Ray Wyeth and 87-year-old patient Martyn House who were in the back of the ambulance.
Crown prosecutor Joshua Phillips said the case was about the alleged “grossly culpable negligent driving” by Mr Wilson on that “horridly fateful day” for the patient, Mr House, and nurse, Mr Wyeth.
Mr Phillips said the reflective sticker on the ambulance, “lit up like a Christmas tree” and the last of several warnings, was missed by Mr Wilson.
The jury saw photographs and drone footage, starting from the Stanwell Store at the intersection of Bower Street and the highway, to the crash site and included the B double Crawfords truck which the ambulance had been behind.
The visual aids also showed the 80 km/hr, 60km/hr and ‘prepare to stop’ signs leading up to where the traffic lights were situated.
Queensland Police Service traffic investigation unit officer Senior Constable Bryanne Kerr, and now Yeppoon general duties and then part time forensic unit member, Senior Constable Michelle Ramage, investigated the scene including measurements of distances between each sign and the lights.
Senior Constable Ramage said she used a measuring wheel, going down the west bound side first to the store and then back to the traffic lights, to get the distances.
The court heard those distances were 571 metres between the store and the 80 km sign, 475 metres between the 80 and 60 signs, 120 metres between the 60km and Prepare to Stop signs, which was placed near the Neerkol East access road, and 18 metres between the Prepare to Stop and the traffic lights.
Senior Constable Kerr said when she inspected the truck Mr Wilson was driving, the bull bar had detached and had reflective sticker from the back of the ambulance on it.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
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