Cyclist left a paraplegic after crash with truck during race

The court was told the 38-year-old sustained a spinal injury and a brain injury in the crash.

Mohammad Ali Abdulamir, 30, of Shepparton, faced the court in a committal, charged with negligently causing serious injury, perjury, reckless conduct endangering life and reckless conduct endangering serious injury.

He has not entered pleas to any of the charges.

Mr Abdulamir was a traffic controller in the race that was part of the 2023 AusCycling Masters and Junior Road Cycling Championships, which were being held on the roads around Dookie.

The court heard about the crash on Dookie-Nalinga Rd at Dookie at noon on September 21 last year, where Ms Carey-Norton collided with the front of a truck that was on the closed road during a cycling race.

She was competing in a 15km time trial event at the time, with cyclists being released from the starting line one minute apart.

After the crash, Ms Carey-Norton was taken to Goulburn Valley Heath with life-threatening injuries, before being flown to hospital in Melbourne in a coma.

Prosecutor Peter Botros said Mr Abdulamir was a traffic controller at GAME Traffic and Contracting and was located on the intersection of New Dookie Rd and Dookie-Nalinga Rd where the crash occurred.

The court heard Mr Abdulamir stopped a truck driver who was driving a semi-trailer with large agricultural machinery at the roadblock and told him he would have to do a U-turn.

The prosecutor alleged that when the driver said it was not possible, Mr Abdulamir waved the truck into the intersection, which is where it was when Ms Carey-Norton came down a hill and crashed into the front of it.

The prosecution also alleged Mr Abdulamir committed perjury in his statement to police when he told the truck driver not to enter the intersection and screamed at him “where are you going”, when the truck started to roll forward.

Mr Botros said dashcam footage from the truck captured part of the conversation and Mr Abdulamir going in front of the truck and waving it on to the road.

The court heard the truck driver was the focus of the investigation until the dashcam footage was viewed by police.

Truck driver John Weldon told the court he was carting machinery on his semi-trailer to a farm in Devenish on the day of the crash and that he had been stopped earlier near Cosgrove at a road that was closed where he had been told two ways he could go, including straight on from where he was.

He drove along Cashel Rd and said there was no detour sign when he came to a T-intersection at Dookie-Nalinga Rd, so he chose the way that looked shorter.

Mr Weldon said when he came to the New Dookie Rd intersection where Mr Abdulamir was stationed, he was told he had to do a U-turn.

He said he asked Mr Abdulamir “where can I do a U-turn with a load this size?” and he “wasn’t very understanding”.

“I was focusing on how I was going to get out of that situation,” Mr Weldon said.

He said the only feasible option was to turn on to New Dookie Rd before going back the way he came, as he thought the other option of reversing several kilometres back down the road to the last intersection was “dangerous” as it was hilly and traffic was coming in the other direction.

Testimony was also given by four staff members from GAME Traffic and Contracting where Mr Abdulamir worked, as well as police.

The court heard from GAME employees about a meeting at the start of the day, about their roles for the day, although recollections of the meeting differed between employees.

Gary Popelier said he had a “quick meeting” with team leader Keith Marr, but said he could not remember Mr Abdulamir being at it.

However, Mr Marr said he “probably” would have had a meeting with the two men together to go through what they needed to do that day.

He said at the meeting he would have told the men not to let anyone on the racetrack and that if anyone got angry about it to call him on the radio or his mobile phone.

Mr Popelier said staff had been told that morning the event they were working at was a cycling race and “don’t let anyone through the site”.

He also told how he did not have any telephone or two-way coverage at the intersection he was at in Duggan Rd at Dookie.

GAME Occupational Health and Safety manager Darryl Kuch told of how he picked up Mr Abdulamir from the crash site after the incident.

He said Mr Abdulamir was “visibly in shock and upset”.

Both the prosecution and defence are yet to make final submissions at the committal, but the court was uncertain when this would occur.