Sydney garbage truck driver cleared of charges over homeless man's death
With tears in his eyes and his head in his hands, a 10-month ordeal for Sydney garbage truck driver Ian Juurik came to an end.
“It felt like 10 years. It’s been life-changing,” he told reporters outside Downing Centre Local Court on Monday.
The 36-year-old was cleared by magistrate Jennifer Giles of negligent driving causing death after he ran over a homeless man sleeping in Bourke Lane in Redfern on May 21 in 2018, having mistook him for a pile of blankets.
Mathew Hayne, who was 1.58 metres tall and weighed 53 kilograms, had wrapped himself in a thin foam mattress on the street which has 45cm-wide sloping footpaths on each side.
The 31-year-old, who was described by a responding paramedic as “very, very emaciated”, suffered fractures from his left ribs to his right pelvis and died at the scene.
“It appears to him (Mr Juurik) as a blanket with no appearance of containing anyone, no bulge and no movement,” the magistrate said on Monday.
“I don’t believe that can amount to falling short of the standard of care … to be expected of the ordinary, prudent driver in these circumstances and I’m finding Mr Juurik not guilty.”
The Crown had contended he didn’t keep a proper lookout and drove over the item without checking it was safe to do so.
The driver’s council colleagues last month testified Mr Juurik had to mount the kerb to get the truck down Bourke Lane, labelling it one of the city’s “most difficult lanes” and an “obstacle course” of hard rubbish.
Garbage loaders Aaron Owens and Lucas Borg both gave evidence they were the “eyes and ears” for Mr Juurik.
Neither man saw the mattress, Mr Hayne or something they could have mistaken for a blanket beforehand.
“I saw a man underneath the truck, curled up into a ball,” Mr Owens said of the aftermath.
The magistrate said the garbage truck driver was “almost sobbing” when he phoned triple-0 from the tiny lane and later engaged in a “most distressing” police interview in which he repeatedly said “it just looked like a blanket”.
“Mr Juurik is utterly guileless and completely unguarded in everything he tells the police. I don’t believe anyone could doubt anything that Mr Juurik says (in it),” Ms Giles said.
“I did even wonder whether he was in a fit state to be interviewed, it is so full and frank and distressed. You couldn’t doubt it.”
She described the “miserable circumstances” as “utterly unique”.
City of Sydney says it’s constantly reviewing processes and procedures to ensure the safety of staff and the community.
The victim’s mother in March said she’d been trying to locate her eldest son but “was six months too late”.
“He has a family and was well-loved,” Melissa Hayne said.
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