Graham Squires: Trial begins over fiery M1 crash that killed Illawarra couple
A man has faced the first day of trial in Wollongong after a fiery crash on the M1 killed a Berkeley couple and sent the city into gridlock for several hours.
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A man charged over a fiery crash that killed two people on the M1 near Wollongong last year has faced the first day of trial, with dashcam footage showing the lead-up to the incident played in court.
Graham Squires, 65, faced his first day of trial in the NSW District Court at Wollongong on Monday, after pleading not guilty to two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death following a horrific six-car pile up that claimed the lives of John Cerezo and Catherine Camilleri.
Squires, from Lansdowne, was driving a silver Ford Territory south on the M1 on June 28 last year, when it collided with a Mack truck and dog trailer combination underneath the Mount Keira Road overpass about 2.10pm.
In court on Monday, Crown prosecutor David Scully told the jury the deadly chain of events was triggered after Squires allegedly cut the truck off as he changed lanes near the Figtree exit. He told the court the driver of the truck, a 42-year-old Albion Park woman, braked to avoid a collision when Mr Cerezo’s Mitsubishi Pajero slammed into the back of the truck.
The Pajero was then hit from behind by an Isuzu truck which caused both vehicles to catch fire.
The 47-year-old Isuzu driver was able to escape his vehicle without injury, but Ms Camilleri and Mr Cerezo were unable to do so, and were tragically incinerated in their vehicle.
“On the crown case, when Mr Squires turned in front of the truck, he caused it to come to a very abrupt stop,” Mr Scully told the court. “When that Mack truck came to that stop, on the Crown case, it caused behind it a multi-vehicle collision involving a number of cars and trucks.”
Dashcam footage played to the jury showed the moment Squires’ silver Ford Territory merged in front of the truck, before the truck hit the Territory and pushed it into a concrete barrier.
While Squires’ defence lawyer Luke Brasch said there were “not a great deal” of facts in the case up for dispute, he argued his client was not driving dangerously at the time of the crash.
“There may have been some misjudgment but it does not fit the charge of drive manner dangerous,” Mr Brasch said.
“He was driving within the speed limit, with due care and what the road required him to do, which was to merge into that middle lane,” he said.
“He increased his speed and pulled beyond the truck and indicated into lane two.”
Mr Brasch said it was the defence case that the driver of the Mack truck closed the gap between Squire’s car as he attempted to merge.
The trial continues.