Emmanuel Xiberras trial: How victim’s son found out his mum had died

A MAN who witnessed the tragic death of a woman who was fatally hit by a truck when crossing the road in Sydney thought she “was a dummy” and “not a real person”, a court has heard.

Lilydale truck driver Emmanuel Xiberras is on trial over the death of Sydney grandmother Jo-Ann Thwaites, who was run over on a pedestrian crossing. Picture: Dylan Robinson.

WARNING: Graphic

THE son of a Sydney woman who was tragically killed when a truck struck her on a pedestrian crossing has revealed the heartbreaking moment he first heard the news.

It’s alleged truck driver Emmanuel Xiberras didn’t stop when he struck Jo-Ann Thwaites at a Brookvale intersection, with the 61-year-old’s clothing stripped as she was dragged below his Lilydale chicken truck, before she was hit by a second truck.

Xiberras, 38, is on trial in the NSW District Court after pleading not guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death, and failing to stop and assist after the crash on the morning of May 20, 2016.

A jury today heard that Xiberras was seen removing clothing from underneath his vehicle and throwing it in a bin after he fatally struck Ms Thwaites on a pedestrian crossing.

The victim’s son Nicholas Thwaites today told the court he first learnt about the incident that morning on his car radio while driving through the northern beaches.

“I heard (on radio) there was an incident in Brookvale and the traffic was backed up all the way past Manly Vale and I drove home accordingly to avoid the traffic,” Mr Thwaites said.

Earlier that day, he had offered his mother a lift home before she left to get her car serviced, but she declined because she wanted to walk and do some shopping, the court heard.

“When I first got home and found mum was not at home … I got this extremely sick feeling in my stomach and panicked [when I] tried to call mum and couldn’t get through,” he said.

“So I drove to where the incident had happened.”

Mr Thwaites said he told police officers on scene that he was unable to reach his mother who was visiting the area. About half an hour later, while standing just 200-300 metres from the crash site, he was informed that the woman who had been involved in the incident, was Ms Thwaites.

Another witness, who can’t be named for legal reasons, testified that he was travelling in the passenger seat with his mother when he saw Ms Thwaites “stumble” as she went to step onto the pedestrian crossing.

She put her hand out to try and stop herself but fell and went under a wheel of Xiberras’ truck, the court heard.

The boy, now 15, said Ms Thwaites let out a short scream when she was struck by the truck.

Brookvale fatal crash victim Jo-Ann Thwaites pictured with her husband Major Anthony Alan Thwaites.

Anthony Alan and Jo-Ann Thwaites.

Truck driver Emmanuel Xiberras is accused of fatally running over Ms Thwaites in his chicken truck. Picture: Instagram.

“There wasn’t much force but it looked like she tried to hit it to make a noise,” he told the court.

“I heard one scream and then it stopped … It wasn’t loud because she couldn’t get full breath out. It was like half a scream and it wasn’t very high pitched. It was quite low.”

The truck then looked like a 4WD “going over rocks on a mountain”, the jury heard.

“I turned to my mum and told her what happened then we looked back and we couldn’t see her,” the witness said.

“I kept looking back, the driver just kept driving normally.”

Another witness, Cameron Latham, told the court he was travelling by car to a nearby work site when he overtook the truck on Pittwater Rd and “something caught [his] eye … for a split second”, the morning of the incident.

“I thought [it] was a dummy towards the front end of a truck,” he said.

Mr Latham told the court he then saw the truck stop in his rear vision mirror so he pulled over about 30m ahead and looked back to see what he “believed was a dummy … not a real person … hanging under” it.

The court heard that Mr Latham “didn’t realise what he saw was a dead person” until he later heard about it in the news.

A female truck driver told the court she saw Xiberras later that morning under his truck, pulling out material that looked like clothing, then lifting the lid of a bin and returning with nothing in his hands. She told the court she asked him if something was wrong with his truck and that he just mumbled and continued on his way.

“I said for a joke: ‘did you hit a clothing bin or something?’” she said.

“He shrugged.”

In his opening address on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Roger Kimbell said Ms Thwaites’ body was dragged for some distance before she dropped onto the road and was struck by a second vehicle.

A white cross stands over the crossing where Jo-Ann Thwaites was killed — the intersection of Condamine St and Old Pittwater Rd. Picture: Troy Snook.

He said several people later saw Xiberras removing or trying to remove what looked like clothing underneath his refrigerated Isuzu truck. Mr Kimbell alleged that if Xiberras was paying attention he would have seen Ms Thwaites on the crossing, and that he didn’t stop when he knew or ought to have known what had happened.

But defence barrister Richard Pontello said Xiberras stopped and looked both ways before driving onto the crossing.

He said in his opening address that in circumstances where Ms Thwaites tripped and fell into his client’s truck, there was nothing he could have done to avoid the tragedy.

When Xiberras felt a bump he thought he’d hit rubbish, and in his mind that suspicion was confirmed when he looked under his vehicle and saw what he thought were cloth rags.

“He had absolutely no idea that he had hit a person … and he had no reason to think that he had done so,” Mr Pontello said.

“The only reason that he disposed of what turned out to be Ms Thwaites’ clothing is that he thought he’d run over rubbish only.”

The trial continues.

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