Menangle rest stop truck crash: Brendon Lidgard’s trial over Hume Highway fatal collision continues

A judge-alone trial has heard a truck entered the Menangle rest stop, mounting a median strip, hitting a tree, a sign and a picnic table before ploughing into three parked cars, killing a young girl.

“My daughter is dead” a man was yelling while onlookers tried to help injured people at the scene of a fatal crash, a court has heard.

Brendon Paul Lidgard, 44, has pleaded not guilty to a string of charges, including dangerous driving occasioning death, over the collision at a rest stop on the Hume Highway at Menangle in July 2020.

In their opening on Thursday, the defence have said the diabetic episode he suffered was “unprecedented” and Mr Lidgard had a reasonable belief he could safely drive.

Brendon Paul Lidgard, 44, of Moss Vale.

The judge-alone trial has heard his truck entered the rest stop, mounting a median strip, hitting a tree, a sign and a picnic table before ploughing into three parked cars.

An eight-year-old girl was killed in the crash.

The prosecution called another witness to the stand on Monday morning at Campbelltown District Court.

Bradley Burrows was driving southbound behind Mr Lidgard’s Boral truck on July 10, 2020.

“We approached a slight left-hand bend and the truck just cut straight through the bend, didn’t even attempt to go around on the road,” Mr Burrows told the court.

“He did this another couple times and the third time he swerved there was a steep embankment and I said to my wife ‘watch out, I think this guy is going to lose it and roll in front of us’.”

Mr Burrows, a Rural Fire Service volunteer, said the truck didn’t go up the embankment and corrected its course, while a car between the truck and Mr Burrows started to “hang back”.

He then saw the truck go into the rest area at Menangle and decided to follow and flashed his lights at the car in front to move out the way.

“The only reason I went into the rest area is because I didn’t see the brake lights or the indicator and an estimated drop in speed,” Mr Burrows said.

“After he entered the rest area ... I saw a puff of dust and then vegetation, tree branches flying.”

Mr Burrows said he saw semi-trailer, not the Boral truck, that from the fuel tank to the front bumper had seen its left side torn off.

Crash scene on the Hume HWY Partridge VC Rest Area. Photo Jeremy Piper

He stopped his car, put his hazards on, got out the car and called emergency services.

“There was people on the ground near the car that was facing north ... there was people around it so I went to the truck to see if there was anyone in the truck,” Mr Burrows told the court.

“The [driver’s] door was open and I saw there was a person in the driver’s seat. I asked if he was OK, and he sort of looked at me dazed.

“I said ‘you right’ and again he just looked at me dazed.”

Mr Burrows said he then checked on the people on the ground who were being treated by others.

He also asked another truck driver to take Mr Lidgard to another section of the carpark and not let him eat or drink anything.

Brendon Paul Lidgard, 44, of Moss Vale.

Mr Burrows later saw a fourth patient on the ground when on the phone to emergency services.

He relayed to the emergency services operator the approximate ages of the injured people and their condition.

Mr Burrows said one woman, estimated in her 30s, seemed to have a head injury.

“She was screaming loudly for her daughter,” he said.

Mr Burrows later saw two gentlemen, one of whom was distressed.

“He was yelling out ‘my daughter’s dead, my daughter’s dead,” he told the court. “The other one was trying to console him and get him to sit down.”

During cross-examination, Mr Burrows confirmed the thought Mr Lidgard was leaning “hunched” forward in the seat.

The trial before Judge Andrew Colefax continues on Tuesday at Campbelltown District Court.