Timothy Lee Wilson, 43, pleads guilty over fatal Stanwell ambulance, truck crash

More than two years after a Maryborough nurse and elderly man in the back of an ambulance were killed when it was rammed by a truck, there was a surprise turn of events in the court.

Inset: Timothy Lee Wilson, 43, pleads guilty over Stanwell ambulance fatal crash. Pictured is the truck he was driving the day of the crash - October 11, 2021.

The driver who killed a nurse and an elderly man when his truck rammed into their stationary ambulance at Stanwell in 2021 has extraordinarily backflipped on his original not guilty plea following last year’s hung jury.

Timothy Lee Wilson, 43, pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing the deaths of Martyn House, 87, and Ray Wyeth, 65, in front of Mr Wyeth’s family in the Rockhampton District Court on Monday, February 26.

Wilson was driving the truck that crashed into the back of the ambulance on the Capricorn Highway on October 11, 2021.

The ambulance was transporting Mr House accompanied by Mr Wyeth, a Maryborough nurse, when it stopped at roadworks on the eastern side of the Stanwell shops just after midday.

Nurse Raymond ‘Clifford Wyeth, known as Ray, died on October 11, 2021 in a car crash while transporting a patient in an ambulance. Source: Facebook

Crown prosecutor describes crash as ‘horridly fateful day’

During a trial in March 2023 after Wilson pleaded not guilty, Crown prosecutor Joshua Phillips said Wilson’s driving that “horridly fateful day” was “grossly culpable negligent driving”.

The jury from the March trial were unable to reach a verdict and Wilson was set to start a second trial this week, however Wilson changed his mind.

During last year’s trial, the jury saw photographs, drone footage and visual aids showing the 80km/hr, 60km/hr and ‘prepare to stop’ signs leading up to where the traffic lights were situated.

The advanced care paramedic driving the ambulance, Ashley O’Conner, gave evidence at the trial.

“My initial reaction was that it looked like it was coming way too fast to the queued traffic,” he said.

“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.”

Then Biloela Hospital wardsman Noel Barry was in the back of the ambulance with Mr House and Mr Wyeth and bucked into a seat to the right of Mr House, who was strapped into a stretcher.

Noel Barry leaving the Rockhampton Court House after giving evidence in the trial.

He said once the ambulance stopped, he turned to look out the back window and saw the truck 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, and Mr O’Conner said they spun a number of times with “loud bangs and crashes”.

Mr Barry said the ambulance spun “on it’s wheels all the way” across the road, up an embankment and facing back up to the embankment when it stopped.

Injured wardsman finds no pulse on men

He said when he checked on Mr Wyeth and Mr House neither had a pulse.

Mr Barry had a bruised shoulder and legs and a bleeding elbow as he was pushed forward into the stretcher during the collision.

He checked on the front passenger of the ambulance, who he described as agitated and wanting to get out of the vehicle.

Mr Barry said Wilson, who was out of his truck and walking around by this point, asked him if he saw any signs.

He said after they stopped about 6m behind a B Double truck, he looked in the driver’s side rear view mirror and saw Wilson’s truck come up over the hill behind him.

Queensland Police Service traffic investigation unit officer Senior Constable Bryanne Kerr told the jury Wilson’s bull bar was detached and had reflective sticker from the back of the ambulance on it.

Senior Constable Michelle Ramage and Senior Constable Bryanne Kerr leaving Rockhampton courthouse after giving evidence in a trial in 2023 about their crash scene investigation into the Stanwell ambulance fatal crash on October 11, 2021.

Truck driver remembers ‘truck up in the air coming down’

The driver of the Crawfords B double, Adam Bentley, was one of three drivers said he had his 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 of the crash as “a bit more than a jolt”.

Mr Bentley was one of three truck drivers impacted by the fatal crash and gave evidence they were towing empty trailers that had been loaded with dangerous goods that morning, fuel and ammonium nitrate.

Joshua Barrett, who was driving for Emerald Carrying Company that day, was ahead of Mr Bentley in the queued traffic.

He said he had stopped for about 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.

The truck that hit the ambulance at Stanwell on October 11.

He said he picked himself up, put on the brakes of his truck and exited to help people.

“The first thing I saw was (Wilson) hanging out of his wreck,” Mr Barrett said.

Wilson’s sentencing was adjourned until the week of April 15 while the defence wait for a forensic psychology report to hand to the judge for consideration.

He was remanded in custody and no bail application was made.