A 66-year-old driver, William Swale, who suffered a severe hypoglycaemic episode before his car ploughed into diners outside a Daylesford hotel, killing five people, will not face trial.
Magistrate Guillaume Bailin discharged the case ruling there was insufficient evidence to put before a jury.
Swale had faced 14 charges, including five counts of culpable driving causing death and other serious offences, after his BMW SUV crashed into patrons about 6.07 pm outside the Royal Daylesford Hotel on 5 November 2023.
Among the victims were 11-year-old Vihaan Bhatia, his father Vivek, 38, family friends Pratibha Sharma, 44, Jatin Kumar, 30, and Sharma’s nine-year-old daughter, Anvi, who later died in hospital.
Eralier, Vikas Sharma, the brother of crash victim Pratibha, while speaking to media outside court said, “It’s very simple – we need justice!”
Bailin’s ruling followed three days of hearings at Ballarat Magistrates’ Court, where the focus was on whether Swale’s actions were conscious and voluntary.
The court heard that Swale, a long-time type 1 diabetic, had ignored multiple warnings from his blood-glucose monitoring device about dangerously low sugar levels before the fatal crash.
Diabetes specialist Matthew Cohen, who has been treating Swale for about 30 years, said he told him he received “no notifications” from his device before the crash. However, he also said Swale would have “no memory” of the crash due to his severe hypoglycaemic state before and after the collision.
Prosecutors argued he should have been aware of the risks associated with driving while experiencing hypoglycaemia.
“He’s well aware of the risks of having low blood sugar levels … of recognising his own personal suite of symptoms for falling blood glucose levels and what to do to remedy or rectify those circumstances. Here we have a driver that is very aware of what the consequences of driving in an environment of low blood sugar is – it’s loss of control,” McWilliams said.
However, Bailin found the evidence could not support a conviction, noting that a reasonable jury could not be satisfied beyond doubt that Swale’s driving was voluntary at the time of the incident.
Swale’s defence, led by Dermot Dann KC, argued that the crash occurred while he was in an impaired state, with no memory of the event. Witnesses described him as semi-conscious and unresponsive immediately after the collision.
“This hearing is not about whether the accused is guilty or not, or even about if the accused could have done something different. It means the nature of this hearing proceeds in a way that appears distant from emotion, focusing on the legal test I have to decide,” Bailin said.
Bailin further stressed that the ruling did not diminish the tragedy of the event:
“I make clear, this dispassionate focus on those issues is in no way meant to reflect a disrespect or lack of acknowledgement of what those in court and online have been experiencing. This ruling is designed to explain how the decision I have made has been reached so it is understood, rather than been accepted.”
As such, the court discharged Swale of all charges, leaving the families of the victims devastated and seeking justice.
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