Robbie Awad’s Hamilton Island buggy death case: Bombshell verdict is handed down in Proserpine Magistrates Court

A honeymooner husband has been found not guilty of driving carelessly after his young bride, Marina, died when their golf buggy tipped over on Hamilton Island. 

Robbie Awad, 32, sat stoically with his hands clasped in his lap on Friday afternoon as Proserpine Court Magistrate Karrie O’Callaghan ruled that his fatal U-turn on June 20, 2022 was not beyond what a reasonable driver would do in the circumstances.

Mr Awad’s mother, brother and friends sighed with relief as the verdict was handed down. 

Mr Awad had admitted to Queensland Police that neither he nor his wife were wearing their seat belts at the time of the accident.

He also confessed that he had been using his mobile phone during the drive, although it was safely in his pocket by the time of the deadly crash. 

Mr Awad had been worried his buggy was running out of battery, as it was slowing down while he drove the pair up a hill.

He attempted to turn the vehicle around and take it back to the Qualia resort, but the buggy crashed, tipping and killing his bride, Marina Hanna.

At the centre of the case against Mr Awad was a dispute over whether Mr Awad could have reasonably turned his golf buggy – the standard mode of transport on the tourist island – in a more safe manner. 

Prosecutors argued he could, while the defence argued that he could not.  

Magistrate O’Callaghan ultimately accepted a defence witness forensic expert’s evidence that the likely cause of the crash was the downwards topography of where the crash occurred, gravity and the struggling performance of the golf buggy.

She found that the fact neither husband or wife were wearing seatbelts would have had minimal effect on the outcome.

Both the prosecution and the defence had cited forensic experts with duelling opinions over what led to the fatal incident (as shown in the graphic, above). 

A prosecution witness, Senior Constable Gemma Williamson, told the court on Thursday that a number of factors caused the crash.

Those included the terrain and the fact that neither newlywed was wearing a seatbelt at the time. 

But on Friday morning, the defence called another forensic expert, former NRMA chief traffic engineer Grant Johnson. 

Mr Johnson told the court that the honeymooning couple’s decision not to wear seat belts would have only made a ‘marginal difference’ in the crash’s deadly end. 

Mr Johnson visited Hamilton Island in March 2023 and used an app to make a 3D model of the crash site to assess the terrain of the area, before using virtual software to reenact the golf buggy accident.

Mr Johnson told the court he was not critical of Awad’s decision to make an illegal U-turn, given the driver’s testimony that he was struggling with battery issues at the time and experienced unexpected acceleration.

He said the lack of seatbelts would have only made a ‘negligible difference’ to the buggy tipping over.

Awad is pictured with wife Marina on their wedding day. Weeks later, she died on their honeymoon to Hamilton Island

Golf buggies are famously used by Hamilton Island guests to get around the island

‘Wearing the seatbelt, it will stop forward motion, but the lateral movement – even with the [accelerator] surge, it is going to occur with or without the seatbelt because of the lack of lateral restraint,’ he said. 

He did not believe, based on Awad’s version of the circumstances, that he was being ‘reckless’.

‘What he did up to where the surge occurred, he was behaving reasonably, he would have done the turn without incident,’ Mr Johnson said.

‘But he then, according to his evidence, became a passenger in a turbo-charged roll.’

Police prosecutor, Sergeant Linden Pollard put it to Mr Johnson that performing the correct U-turn would have required Awad to slow down. 

The gradient of the hill would have been slightly less, making it a safer option.

Mr Johnson said that was ‘potentially’ the case, but noted Mr Awad said he doubted it. ‘I can’t discount the option was there’. 

Magistrate O’Callaghan fined Mr Awad $3483 for both buggy passengers failing to wear seatbelts and using a mobile phone while driving. 

Mr Awad refused to comment outside court.