William Swale faces court over 2023 crash in Victoria that killed five people

A Victorian court is set to decide if a driver charged over the deaths of five people outside a country pub, will stand trial before a jury.

Transcript

00:0057-year-old William Herbert Swale has type 1 diabetes and his lawyers told the Ballarat

00:08Magistrates Court that there's a very large issue about whether the crash, which happened

00:13outside the Dalesford Hotel in November last year, was a conscious and voluntary act.

00:19That's because they say that he actually suffered from a hypoglycemic episode caused by low

00:25blood sugar levels.

00:26Now we all remember those awful scenes where an idyllic Sunday afternoon with people dining

00:33outside the Dalesford pub in the beer garden area on a long weekend for the Melbourne Cup

00:40Carnival came to an absolutely horrific and tragic end when this SUV mounted the kerb

00:48and crashed through picnic tables, claiming the lives of a woman, her husband and her

00:53nine-year-old daughter, and separately a man and his 11-year-old son, as well as injuring

01:00other people.

01:01Now Mr Swale was behind the wheel of that SUV but prosecutors say he's not guilty of

01:07charges including causing death by culpable driving because they say that there is no

01:14evidence to suggest that he actually saw any of those phone notifications alerting or warning

01:20him to the fact that his blood sugar levels had dropped.

01:24But prosecutors say that he had ignored his phone notifications and there's also evidence

01:30that he knew that his blood glucose levels tended to drop before dinner time.

01:35Now we've already heard evidence from a witness who was out with Mr Swale on the morning of

01:41the crash at a shooting range and he says that Mr Swale appeared vague.

01:47And there have also been testimonies from witnesses who were at the actual Dalesford

01:53pub just after this incident, also paramedics who attended to him and could describe his

02:00state after the crash as well as an IT expert.

02:03We're expecting to hear more evidence from other witnesses today and then it will be

02:08up to a magistrate to decide whether or not Mr Swale has a case to answer.

02:13That is, whether or not he will actually face a criminal trial on these charges before a jury.