A sewage truck company has been found guilty of failing to adequately train a driver who lost control of a truck at the base of the South Eastern Freeway, killing two people.Two people died when one of its sewage trucks hit them in 2014Thomas Spiess, 57, and Jacqueline Byrne, 41, died when the truck owned by Cleanaway Operations smashed into their cars at the bottom of the freeway down track in August 2014.Charges initially laid against him were dropped in 2018.
During the trial, Mr Hicks told the Adelaide Magistrates Court he had never driven a manual heavy vehicle or driven the steep downhill freeway track before the crash. He told the court, he did a two-day course at the G&L Heavy Vehicle Training Centre to get his licence and started work at Cleanaway Operations six days before the incident.
On Monday, Magistrate Simon Smart found Cleanaway Operations guilty of eight counts of failing to comply with their health and safety duty.
I tried to tell them I didn't know how to drive that truck