A 65-year-old driver from the NSW North Coast has been found guilty of causing a fiery crash on the M1 Princes Motorway at West Wollongong in which two people were killed and nine others injured.
Wollongong District Court found Graham Squires guilty of two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death.
Squires merged in front of a truck in peak hour traffic, triggering a multiple vehicle pile-up on the afternoon of Friday, June 28, 2019.
Jurors were shown dashcam footage during the trial and heard from eleven road-users who witnessed the crash.
Crown prosecutor David Scully argued Squires was driving dangerously when he merged in front of a B-double truck at the Mt Keira Road overpass, forcing the driver to slam on his brakes.
In the ensuing crash a white four-wheel drive rear-ended the truck and was then hit from behind by another truck, causing the vehicle to burst into flames seconds later and killing the two occupants.
Defence barrister Luke Brasch told the court the dashcam footage revealed his client's "prudent" driving, because it showed him checking over his shoulder and indicating before merging.
Mr Brasch also accused the truck driver of "squeezing the space" in front of him to prevent his client from safely merging.
The Crown rejected those claims, arguing there was never enough space for Squires to merge safely.
Driver told police truckie was 'tailgating'
During the trial jurors were also shown a police interview recorded with Squires hours after the crash.
In the video Squires insists he saw the grille of the truck in his rear-view mirror and believed he had adequate space to merge.
He said he was devastated when he realised the scale of the destruction.
Squires told the interviewing officer that the cars behind the B-double truck must have been "tailgating", otherwise they would have had space to stop.
The court heard Squires was the primary carer for his disabled son and would need to make arrangements for his future care ahead of his sentencing.
Judge Stephen Norrish set a sentencing date for Friday, December 11, at Sydney District court.
