A truck driver who was travelling immediately behind a car driven by Jean Hubbard saw the little white car drift across the centre line and collide with another vehicle, a court has heard.
Mosgiel man Andy Earl, 42, has denied one charge of careless driving causing the death of businessman Allan Hubbard and one charge of careless driving causing injury to Mrs Hubbard following the head-on collision on State Highway 1, 8km north of Oamaru on September 2 2011.
Mr Hubbard died in Oamaru Hospital shortly after the crash and Mrs Hubbard suffered serious injuries.
On the second day of Earl's trial, before Judge MacAskill in Timaru District Court, Cain Lindegreen said he had been driving a truck from Waimate to Dunedin.
It was the first time he had driven the vehicle and he had been driving cautiously about 90kmh and about 200 metres behind the Hubbards' car, which was travelling south.
"I have a picture in my mind like a polaroid photo of that white car drifting across the line and then all hell broke loose in front of me. In my mind's eye I still see the northbound red car in the correct position and the white car drifting across the line into it. In my entire life I have never seen anything like that," Mr Lindegreen told the court.
He said he then saw the red vehicle with a trailer spinning across the road and the white car tumbling. "That's the way it is in my head."
Mr Lindegreen stopped and ran to the accident. He spoke first to the driver of the red vehicle, who asked if the people in the white car were all right. He then spoke to the occupants of the white car and saw a man in "great distress".
After the accident, Mr Lindegreen continued on to Dunedin and spoke to the police in Oamaru the next day.
He said he had no idea who the people in the white car were and only found out days later that it had been the Hubbards.
Under prolonged cross-examination, Mr Lindegreen agreed that he had initially said he believed he had seen the red northbound vehicle swerve to avoid the white car as it crossed the centre line.
Other witnesses have given conflicting evidence to the court over which vehicle had been at fault.
Yesterday, Mrs Hubbard said she had no memory of the crash.
The trial is expected to conclude tomorrow.
- By Tom O'Connor
