source : the age
The diabetic driver who killed five people when he crashed his car into diners enjoying a sunny long weekend outside a Daylesford pub in 2023 during a medical episode has broken his silence and given evidence in court.
After initially objecting to providing evidence and being ordered to do so in January, William Swale on Tuesday recalled his movements in the Victorian Coroners Court during the first day of an inquest into the tragedy.
Swale, 69, who arrived in court alongside lawyer Dermot Dann, KC, told the court he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1994 but had not received formal training on how to manage the condition or drive safely.
On November 5, 2023, Swale spent the morning clay shooting with friends in the Daylesford area before driving to the town in the afternoon looking for food, the court heard.
Swale said he did not remember crashing into the alfresco area outside the Royal Daylesford Hotel – at the bottom of Albert Street – about 6pm, and that his last recollection before the tragedy was walking into a cheese and wine bar.
“I remember the paramedics saying you have been in an accident,” Swale told the court.
CCTV footage before the crash was played to the court and shows Swale walking into Winespeake Cellar + Deli at 5.21pm that day, and then walking out without buying food because no tables were free.
Security camera footage from a nearby bowls club about 20 minutes later shows Swale’s white BMW driving along a street and then stopping in the middle of the road, which forced other vehicles to drive around him. Swale’s BMW then does a U-turn and drives back the way it came.
Swale checked his blood glucose level at 5.17pm, the court heard, and obtained a reading of 2.9, a figure below the 3.9 reading that would have set off an alarm on his phone.
Swale said on Tuesday he did not recall an alarm going off.
Asked by Rishi Nathwani, KC, the counsel assisting the inquest, whether it was likely he would have known then that he was in the grips of a hypoglycemic episode, Swale said: “I don’t accept that.”
Swale said he previously suffered an episode of severe hypoglycemia in 2003 at home, when he became faint, which prompted his wife to take him to a medical centre for treatment.
He said that in the lead-up to the fatal crash he had felt “hazy”, but did not experience lip tingling, which is often associated with low blood sugar levels.
Diners were seated at wooden picnic tables on the grassed area outside the Royal Daylesford Hotel when Swale’s BMW careened down a hill and into patrons.
Vivek Bhatia, 38, and son Vihaan, 11, died at the scene, alongside family friends Pratibha Sharma, 44, and Jatin Kumar, 30. Sharma’s nine-year-old daughter, Anvi, was taken to hospital, where she later died.
Vihaan’s mother, Ruchi Bhatia, and his brother, Abeer, were seriously injured. Three other people, a woman in her 40s from Kyneton, a man in his 30s from Cockatoo and a boy, then aged 11 months, were also injured.
Swale was initially charged with 14 offences, including five counts of culpable driving causing death. But a Ballarat magistrate in 2024 found the driver had no case to answer and dismissed the charges against him.
The inquest, which is expected to run over eight days, will examine the circumstances before and after the crash, including Swale’s diabetes management, his food and drink consumption, his insulin administration, blood glucose readings and alarms from his monitoring device.
It will also look at safe driving guidelines and education and public awareness for diabetic drivers.
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