A diabetic episode that caused a high-speed collision which killed a girl was entirely unprecedented and not a result of the driver mismanaging his condition, his lawyer has told a NSW court.
Brendon Paul Lidgard has pleaded not guilty to a string of charges, including dangerous driving occasioning death, over the collision at a rest area on Hume Highway at Menangle in July 2020.
The judge-alone trial has heard his truck entered the rest stop at 100km/h, mounting a median strip, hitting a tree, a sign and a picnic table before ploughing into three parked cars.
An eight-year-old girl - who was climbing into the back of a car hit at 84km/h and thrown into two others - suffered the full force of the impact.
She died of catastrophic injuries at the scene, while three others were hospitalised.
The Crown argues Lidgard - an insulin-dependent type one diabetic - got behind the wheel either without an honest belief it was safe for him to drive, or with an unreasonable one.
He had suffered from hypoglycemic episodes before, and had administered himself an extra dose of insulin to counteract his mid-afternoon snacks, knowing the impact too much insulin could have.
However, Lidgard's barrister Simon Buchen on Thursday told the Campbelltown District Court the 44-year-old had never had a diabetes-related traffic incident remotely similar to what he experienced that day.
"What happened on the 10th of July 2020 was entirely unprecedented."
The hypoglycemic episode onset rapidly, and Lidgard had no memory of the collision.
"He remembered eating and taking insulin ... (and) he recalled talking to a mate, presumably on the telephone."
"And the next minute I'm stopped here," Lidgard reportedly told paramedics at the scene.
Mr Buchen contends Lidgard was not in voluntary control of the truck in the lead-up to and during the collision, and therefore cannot be held liable.
"It is not sufficient for the prosecution to prove that the truck moved in an objectively dangerous manner," he said.
"The truck must be driven in a dangerous manner."
Similarly, he rebuffed the Crown's argument that Lidgard's extra insulin dose was a mismanagement of his condition.
"There will be evidence that diabetics commonly and necessarily need to adjust insulin intake to ... accommodate a number of variable factors.
"He had done this regularly without incident.
"There was some shortcomings in the way the accused managed his diabetes.
"(But) he was not someone who ignored his condition."
In summary, Lidgard did have an honest and reasonable belief it was safe for him to drive when he got behind the wheel.
"The case will be put that he would not have driven ... were it otherwise," Mr Buchen said.
"There's (no) suggestion that the accused was intoxicated, or that he was a wanton or reckless driver, or that he was someone who'd like to speed, or that he was someone who was fatigued."
The trial continues.
