A 17-year-old boy with autism is on trial in South Australia Youth Court for a triple fatal accident on Princes Highway in the south-east of the state.
Key points:
- A teenager has pleaded not guilty to causing death by dangerous driving in a triple-fatal car accident near Mount Gambier
- Ned and Nan Walker and their daughter, Sue Skeer, died in the crash
- The boy’s aunt tells the court that it was Nan Walker’s car that was on the wrong side of the road.
Millicent residents Ned and Nan Walker and their daughter Sue Skeer were killed in a head-on collision in Suttontown on November 28, 2020.
The boy, who was 16 at the time of the accident, pleaded not guilty to three counts of causing death by dangerous driving.
Prosecutor Aimee Winra described the crash as a “catastrophic tragedy” in her inaugural speech on Tuesday.
He told the court that the teenager, who had a student driver’s license, had been “thinking about school” and “had not concentrated” when he drove into the opposite lane and collided with the car. which was going in the opposite direction.
Ms Winra said the boy’s “great lack of attention” had caused the accident.
Three people were killed in the Princes Highway crash in November 2020. (ABC News)
The court learned that the teenager was taking medication at the time, which made it difficult for him to concentrate.
Ms Winra told the court the boy may have “shopped” while the car was in cruise control, but that he had braked in the seconds before the crash.
Relatives of Ned and Nan Walker and Sue Skeer are leaving court on Tuesday. (ABC South East SA: Grace Whiteside)
Error “rectified immediately”
The child’s defense attorney, Bill Boucaut QC, said any drift into the wrong lane was “momentary at the end” and “immediately rectified by the defendant’s mother,” who he oversaw.
During the first day of the trial, five witnesses testified, including the boy’s aunt, who was in the car at the time of the accident.
Ned and Nan Walker were killed in an accident on the Princes Highway near Mount Gambier. (Supplied by: Jacqui Verbena)
He told the court it was the approaching car, driven by Nan Walker, that was on the wrong side of the road.
He said “it happened so fast” and “he didn’t see them.” [the oncoming car] until they were there. ”
“They crashed into us,” he said.
The judge will visit the scene of the accident on Wednesday.
The trial is set to end on Friday.
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