A truck driver has received a three-year suspended jail sentence for a hit-and-run crash where he side-swiped another truck on a Queensland motorway, killing the driver who was standing next to it.
Dallas Holland left for his job as a truck driver on January 10, 2017 just as he did every other day.
But tragically the 34-year-old, engaged to be married, never made it home.
The scene of a tragic crash where 34-year-old Dallas Holland was killed in a hit-and-run
He was hit by a fellow truck driver after he pulled into an emergency bay on the Gateway Motorway, south of Brisbane.
Mr Holland’s family sobbed in court as details of the incident were read out.
Outside court, Mr Holland’s mother Julie Reid questioned how a truck driver with so much experience could have not seen her son.
‘How can you be so inattentive and just do that, and go back and say nothing happened?’ she said.
He had stopped to secure his load of mining truck tyres when he was hit and thrown 13m.
Scott David Madill appeared in Brisbane District Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to the dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death and leaving the scene.
He was sentenced to three years’ jail, suspended after six months, and disqualified from driving for 18 months.
The court was told despite it being a clear day with little traffic, the 47-year-old did not remember seeing Mr Holland or his truck on the side of the road.
He told police he heard a bang and knew he had hit something, but couldn’t look back as his left-side mirror had been knocked off in the collision.
Forensic police (pictured) investigated the scene truckie Scott David Maddill ran away from on January 10 2017
Madill did not think he had hit a person and handed himself in to police when he heard there had been a fatal on the same stretch of road.
Judge Gregory Koppenol struggled to reconcile how a truck driver with 27 years experience could have not seen Mr Holland or his vehicle.
‘I can only conclude that you were inattentive, albeit briefly, and that period of inattentiveness resulted in the devastating consequences, the loss of Mr Holland’s life, and the terrible and catastrophic consequences for his family and extended family,’ he said.
Judge Koppenol accepted Madill’s defence barrister’s submission that when he told police he ‘panicked’ it was in relation to fears he would lose his job over damage to the truck, not that he had hit someone and driven away.
Madill will be eligible for parole on July 31, 2018.