Menangle: Brendon Lidgard trial into fatal collision on Hume Highway

A witness to a fatal collision on a major highway on the outskirts of Sydney allegedly dramatised his injuries for financial gain, a court has heard. Read the latest in the trial.

One of the survivors of a fatal collision at a Menangle rest stop, Peter Moore, “exaggerated” and “dramatised” his injuries for financial gain, a court heard during a judge-only trial into the crash that killed an eight-year-old girl on the Hume Highway in 2020.

Brendon Paul Lidgard’s Boral truck allegedly mounted a median strip on the highway before it hit a tree, a sign and a picnic table and crashed into three parked cars at the Partridge VC Rest Area on July 10 at 3pm.

Mr Lidgard has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges including dangerous driving occasioning death and three counts of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm.

The latter charges have been contended and Mr Moore was the only injured witness to give evidence during the trial.

At Parramatta District Court on Thursday, the prosecution continued outlining details of Mr Moore’s injuries after the collision that the court heard caused the then 46-year-old to be hospitalised with injuries to his right arm, ribs, left knee and right shoulder.

He underwent surgery and was discharged after three days.

Professor Ian Harris said there was instability to Mr Moore’s left knee and it required physiotherapy after Mr Moore experienced “shooting pains” and weakness.

The prosecution told the court how his right shoulder was frozen eight weeks after the incident and he received a cortisone injection a year after the collision to ease the “24/7 pain”.

Brendon Lidgard is fighting 11 charges.

He also undertook an MRI on his neck.

“It is submitted that while Mr Moore’s injuries were not life threatening, they were serious especially in regard to the right arm,’’ Crown prosecutor Monika Knowles said.

“This is evidenced by the ongoing difficulties.’’

The defence told the court the injuries amounted to grievous bodily harm, “albeit the lower end of the range”.

But the defence disputed that and recounted Professor Harris’ evidence that said the injuries were not critical.

Mr Moore gave evidence in March about standing outside his car when the B-double truck entered the rest area before a Subaru hit him, causing him to be thrown about five metres and land face down on the grass.

“It goes without saying that Mr Moore did experience something horrific on July 10, 2020,’’ barrister Andrew Wong said.

But he said, after viewing the evidence closely, “quite simply it’s a case that in relation to Mr Moore, he had a tendency to exaggerate and was quite dramatic”.

“It may be the trauma of the accident that exaggerating injuries was a way for him to understand what happened.

“It may be that when he was cross examined he had a financial interest … and agreed the worse his injuries are, the more he would be paid.’’

The Crown earlier said Mr Moore was upfront about being in the process of making a civil claim for damages after the incident.

Mr Wong cited Mr Moore’s evidence when he told the court he thought he was going to die while in the ambulance before being taken to hospital but that was possibly because he could have misunderstood when the paramedics told him to say goodbye to his family as an ominous sign.

The court also heard how after the impact he was not sure if his right arm was attached to his body anymore and the “emergency department was doing what they could to keep me alive”.

Diabetes management

Earlier in court, the defence said Mr Lidgard’s diabetes management was not “cavalier” but a result of multiple failures from other parties including his GP.

This week, the court heard how the insulin-dependant 46 year old believed an hyperglycaemic diabetic seizure could have caused the collision, which he could not recall.

One of his last memories shortly before the fatality was at the Narellan Rd underpass and dosing up on six units of insulin at Uncle Leo’s Roadhouse at The Crossroads, Glenfield.

He told police in an interview played to the court that the extra insulin could have prompted the diabetic episode and said he could have better managed the condition, which he has had since he was 18.

Crown prosecutor Knowles told the court the father’s failure to check his blood sugar levels before injecting insulin at Uncle Leo’s was nothing short of a “cavalier approach particularly when he had means to him to test himself” and that his “hypoglycaemic unawareness” increased the risk of dangerous driving.

However, barrister Simon Buchen SC blamed a “catalogue of failures” on his employer Boral and the RMS for determining he was fit to drive, and Mr Lidgard’s GP Stephen Helme, whom the Moss Vale man relied on for expertise to deal with his diabetes instead of an endocrinologist.

Brendon Lidgard says his diabetic episode could have led to a fatal collision.

Mr Buchen told the court Dr Helme was his client’s “one-stop shop” for diabetes management and assumed the GP was an expert in diabetes, referring to the police interview when he said the Moss Vale doctor was “my go-to for everything”.

Mr Buchen referred to a professor’s evidence that alleged Dr Helme failed to monitor Mr Lidgard’s blood sugar levels to avoid hypoglycaemic episodes and should have referred him to a specialist.

The court heard how the truck driver did suffer from a hypoglycaemic episode on the day because Dr Helme did not provide guidelines to Mr Lidgard.

“He is a truck driver, not a doctor,’’ Mr Buchen said.

He earlier said each witness for the prosecution had given exculpatory evidence and in some examples relied on material from years, or decades, ago that was, “incomplete and ambiguous”.

The trial before Judge Andrew Colefax continues.

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