Diabetic driver looked ‘wasted’: court

The driver accused of causing a horror beer garden crash which killed five looked “bloody awful” moments after, a court has been told.

William Herbert Swale, 66, appeared in the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on Monday for the start of a committal hearing to determine if his case heads to trial.

The New Zealand-born retiree was charged in December last year after allegedly crashing into the outdoor beer garden at the Royal Daylesford Hotel in country Victoria the month prior.

Five people were killed and others injured as Mr Swale’s vehicle ploughed into two families enjoying a Sunday evening on November 5, 2023.

He is facing five counts of culpable driving causing death, two counts of negligently causing serious injury and seven counts of reckless conduct endangering life.

Melbourne woman Pratibha Sharma, 44, her nine-year-old daughter Anvi, and Ms Sharma’s husband Jatin Kumar, 30, were killed in the crash.

Their friend Vevek Bhati and his 11-year-old son Vihann died at the scene, while his partner and six-year-old son were injured.

Prosecutors allege the diabetic man “ignored” nine alerts on his phone from a continuous blood glucose monitor between 5.20pm and 6.06pm before he lost control of the car.

Mr Swale’s lawyer, Dermot Dann KC, has previously suggested his client suffered a severe hypoglycemic medical episode, questioning if the prosecution even “have a case at all”.

“This case is based on, in part, a disregard of alarms that are being received,” he said.

“Where’s the evidence of that?”

Called to give evidence, Martin Hinck said he was working at Winespeake Cellar opposite the hotel when he heard a bang and people screaming shortly after 6pm.

Mr Hinck ran out, observing the driver motionless with his eyes closed and mouth agape in the vehicle, describing him as appearing “wasted” or “bloody awful”.

He accepted he only had a brief look of a few seconds before beginning to manage traffic.

The court was told a man, matching Mr Swale’s description, had entered Winespeake before the crash asking for a table, but Mr Hinck said they were full and he left.

“He asked for a seat, we 100 per cent didn’t have any seats, I told him we were totally full, that was the extent of our conversation,” he said.

Mr Swale was taken to the Ballarat Base Hospital after first responders found him unable to communicate at the scene.

Paramedic Michael Barker said he found Mr Swale in an “altered conscious state” and pinpricked his finger to test for blood glucose.

“He wasn’t opening his eyes and his verbal response was incomprehensible,” he said.

Mr Baker said his machine returned a reading of less than 1.1 mmol/L, indicating severe hypoglycaemia.

He told the court it placed Mr Swale at risk of coma or death, so he treated him with glycogen and dextrose, bringing him “back to a more normal level”.

“I wasn’t able to get a lot of information out of him, he was still confused,” Mr Baker said.

“Eventually, I left him with the police officer while I went to the other patients.”

Body-worn police footage captured first responders telling Mr Swale to “stay with me, mate” as he drifted in and out of consciousness, Mr Dann said.

Road crash reconstruction expert Dr Janelle Hardiman told the court there was no evidence of braking or steering input before or after the crash.

She agreed with a suggestion by Mr Dann that this could reflect the driver was in a “deeply impaired state”.

Digital forensic analyst Luke Jennings told the court he had been asked by police to examine data from Mr Swale’s phone, finding a series of notifications indicating low blood glucose levels.

“Dismiss alarm, check glucose,” he said a banner notification read.

But he agreed all he could say for certain is they appeared on Mr Swale’s iPhone and the phone, at times, had been manually unlocked.

Mr Swale had been making his way home after attending a multi-day national clay target shooting championship in Clunes — a half-hour drive west of Daylesford.

Three witnesses, Robert Hutton, Paul Hildebrand and Chris Street, said they’d competed with Mr Swale between November 4 and 5, 2023.

Each said they did not see Mr Swale drink alcohol during the competition, with Mr Hildebrand saying the accused man told him he was staying in his car for the two-day period.

The competition ended at 1.30pm on Sunday and each man did not see Mr Swale after this.

Mr Swale’s GP, Phillip Feren, told the court that Mr Swale had been living with insulin-dependent diabetes since 1994, with regular reports from an endocrinologist finding it was under excellent control.

These reports also noted Mr Swale experienced hypoglycaemia – or low blood glucose levels – overnight and before meals, Dr Feren told the court.

The hearing, before magistrate Guillaume Bailin, will continue on Tuesday.