Neville Dodt sentenced over horror crash that killed Ricky Constable

Two men had driven about 2349km in just over 35 hours when the driver fell asleep, sending the car into a tree.

A truck driver who killed his recently engaged friend after falling asleep behind the wheel, veering off the road and into a large tree almost 36 hours into an interstate road trip has admitted he was fatigued at the time.

Neville Dodt, 62, appeared in the County Court on Wednesday to plead guilty to one charge of dangerous driving causing death.

The court heard the Queensland panel beater, painter and air conditioner technician had purchased an excavator online from a trader located in Casterton.

Unable to arrange for it to be transported up north, he decided to collect it himself with the help of his friend Ricky Constable, aged 52.

The pair left Taromeo, in Queensland, about 4pm on Friday, October 11, 2019 and drove 1978 km directly to Casterton.

Only taking short stops to refuel, the men arrived about 5pm the following day and after loading the excavator onto the truck they began the drive home about 8pm.

Dodt was driving on the rural Wimmera Highway near Marong, when, about 3.30am, he veered off the straight section of the sealed road and collided with a large gum tree.

The truck’s passenger, Ricky Constable, 52, was thrown from the vehicle and sustained a traumatic head injury. He died at the scene.

Dodt was also seriously injured and while being treated by paramedics said he “was tired” and was “going to get him to drive”.

During a police interview the following day he told police he had only had a few hours sleep since they’d left home.

“They had driven a total of about 2349 km in 35 and a half hours when the truck collided with the tree,” crown prosecutor Mark Rochford QC said.

No alcohol or drugs were found in his system, he was not speeding at the time and the weather conditions were good.

“It is the prosecution case, that is accepted by the plea of guilty, that the accused hadn’t had proper sleep.”

He added that the only available area to sleep in the truck was the passenger seat.

Five moving impact statements, written by the victim’s family, were read to the court on Wednesday.

One, from his daughter, described the “devastating” and wide ranging impacts of the loss on her life and how it had been compounded by the stress of the court process.

“After this incident happened my life as I knew it fell apart and I haven’t been able to put it back together again,” she said.

“I’m not the woman I was before the accident and I’m afraid I’ll never be able to recover.”

The court was told Mr Constable, who was described as having “a heart of gold”, had become engaged just a day before leaving for the trip.

Dodt’s defence submitted the married father of five, who was heavily involved in his community, was a fully licenced and experienced driver who had never been in an accident before, and the offending did not include any deliberate breaches of the road rules.

He explained the ongoing physical impacts and psychological trauma Dodt experienced as a result of the crash and losing his “dear friend”, while he had also received anonymous hate mail.

He said these amounted to extra curial punishment that would “weigh heavily upon him for the rest of his life”.

Judge Johns decided to convict and sentence the businessman by way of a community corrections order rather than a period of imprisonment.

While he said driving fatigued was “a high risk and dangerous exercise” and the case proved how “catastrophic” the consequences could be, so needed to be denounced and deterred, he said Dodt could not continue to operate his business and reside at home if he needed to complete unpaid community work in Victoria.

He said that would carry “a degree of punishment over and above the imposition of work hours”, and implored Corrections Victoria to transfer the 50 unpaid work hours on the order to the northern state, or to allow him to complete them remotely as had been done during the pandemic.

The order will begin in three months, to allow for this process to take place, and will last for two and a half years.

Dodt must also pay a $15,000 fine, in addition to a $7500 bond.