AN Oberon man who was behind the wheel when his mate died in a Black Springs car crash has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death and driving in a manner dangerous.
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Luke James Murphy, 32, of Scotia Avenue, Oberon, was committed for sentence in the next sitting of Bathurst District Court on October 2.
Murphy appeared before visiting magistrate Peter Feather in Bathurst Local Court on Monday.
Solicitor Evan Dowd entered the guilty plea on Murphy's behalf and a second charge of dangerous driving occasioning death - driving under the influence was withdrawn and dismissed.
Murphy was charged following the crash on Abercrombie Road in May 2019.
The Crown case statement handed to the court said that on the morning of May 22, 2019, Murphy drove to Goulburn from Oberon, where he picked up his friend.
Murphy had received a call from another man saying the deceased needed a lift after hitting a kangaroo.
Murphy was driving back towards Oberon in a Mitsubishi Triton, which was towing a U-Haul trailer carrying a Ford Falcon, when the trailer began fishtailing near the Ponderosa Forest Road turn-off on Abercrombie Road.
The statement said the trailer swung to the left and hit a dirt embankment. Murphy lost control of the Triton, which veered diagonally to the wrong side of the road.
The Triton rolled to the passenger side, landing on its roof. The Ford Falcon also broke free from the trailer and landed on its roof.
The deceased, who was in the front passenger seat, was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the vehicle as it rolled, suffering fatal injuries as a result.
The Crown case statement said crash investigators determined that the Ford Falcon that was being carried on the U-Haul trailer behind the Triton was approximately 580kg overweight for the capacity of the trailer.
Further, the weight of the Ford Falcon was not distributed correctly across the trailer as signposted on the trailer's guards.
The statement said that Murphy had told police during an interview that he had met the deceased at Goulburn McDonald's and they had gone to pick up the Ford.
Murphy said the two men had difficulty getting the Ford Falcon onto the trailer but finally got it on backwards and tied it down with four ratchet straps.
He said they checked the straps at Taralga and they were fine.
