A wine cellar worker has described finding a driver inside his car looking “like he was wasted” a minute after a crash killed five patrons outside a pub.
William Swale, 66, faced the first day of a committal hearing in Ballarat today over the November 2023 crash that killed two children and three adults in Victoria’s Daylesford.
He allegedly mounted the kerb in his SUV and hit several people seated on the front lawn of the Royal Daylesford Hotel.
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Pratibha Sharma, 44, her daughter Anvi, 9, and partner Jatin Kumar, 30, and their friend Vivek Bhatia, 38, and his son Vihaan, 11, all died.
Police allege Swale, who was diagnosed with diabetes in 1994, ignored warnings about his blood glucose levels before he suffered a hypoglycaemic episode while driving on November 5.
Swale sat with his supporters in the front row of Ballarat Magistrates Court today as witnesses to the crash took to the stand.
Families of the five victims also attended the committal hearing.
Martin Hinck was working at winespeake cellar + deli, across the other side of the roundabout from the pub, when he said he heard “bang” followed by screaming.
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He ran to where Swale was sitting in his car behind the wheel, and told police he found him looking “bloody awful” and it “looked like he was wasted”.
“My recollection is that he was quite a flushed colour, his mouth was open and his eyes were closed,” Hinck told the court today.
“This happened within the first minute of the accident so very soon afterwards.”
Paramedic Michael Barker, who treated Swale at the scene of the crash, said his blood glucose measurement was dangerously low.
He gave him a glucagon injection, sugar water and told a nearby police officer he believed Swale had suffered a severe hypoglycaemic attack.
Body-worn camera footage recorded other emergency workers telling Swale to “stay with me” amid fears he was gravely ill, Swale’s barrister Dermot Dann KC told the court.
“I wasn’t able to get a lot of info out of him because he was still quite confused,” Barker said.
“Eventually I left Mr Swale with the police officer to try and get some information out of him while I went to other patients.”
Earlier, three men who were at a shooting event with Swale the weekend of the crash gave evidence.
Christopher Street, who was part of Swale’s shooting squad, said he had a “very unconventional” way of shooting.
“He was hunched over,” he said.
Dann questioned the relevance of the mens’ evidence considering Swale was facing charges including five counts of culpable driving causing death and negligently causing serious injury.
The hearing before Magistrate Guillaume Bailin continues.
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