By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A supervisor at a Lyndhurst trucking company is facing manslaughter charges over the death of four police officers on Eastern Freeway, Kew.
Simiona Tuteru, 49, was charged as the direct supervisor of Connect Logistics truckie Mohinder Bajwa Singh who fatally ran down the police officers in an emergency lane on 22 April 2020.
Without braking, Singh’s prime mover ploughed into two parked police vehicles and Richard Pusey’s intercepted Porsche about 5.36pm.
In a committal hearing at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 17 May, defence lawyer David Hallowes SC said Singh was expected to testify against Tuteru as a prosecution witness.
Singh’s daughter Harpreet Bajwa, 21, told the court under cross-examination that she told Singh to stay home on the afternoon of the crash.
“He said he absolutely needed to (go to work) otherwise he’d be fired,” she told the court.
“The way he was acting that day scared me. I thought he was going to kill someone if he drove.”
He appeared “pretty terrified”. His eyes were “racing”, his pupils dilated and he kept repeating himself without making sense.
“I knew … there was something wrong with him that day,” she’d told the court.
Ms Bajwa recorded him for two-and-a-half minutes to show her mother. In a police statement, she said Singh was not making sense and spoke of a witch following him.
He left for work for an “interview” in a knitted jumper and casual clothing, rather than a high-vis top that he’d usually wear, she told the court.
She told him to see a doctor.
“Dad was adamant that he was only going to work for the interview to get fired, not to work,” she stated to police.
She had never seen Singh use drugs but noticed his mental health decline over time, she said.
After the crash, methamphetamine and amphetamine was detected in Singh’s blood.
The 0.58 grams per litre of methylamphetamine was a “high” reading, forensic physician Dr Sanjeev Gaya wrote in a statement tendered at the court.
In his statement, Dr Gaya said the timing of Singh’s ice use was unable to be determined from the reading.
In his opinion, Singh was incapable of having proper control of a vehicle due to impairment from ice. Such intoxication makes drivers more likely to drive erratically and drift across lanes.
Meth may also cause “sudden and irresistible” rebound fatigue – which may be an even greater threat to road safety, Dr Gaya stated.
Tuteru faces 82 charges, including the manslaughter of Victoria Police officers Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Constable Glen Humphris, Senior Constable Kevin King and Constable Joshua Prestney
He is accused of multiple breaches of the National Heavy Vehicle Law and several counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
The offences include causing or encouraging Singh to drive and failing to take reasonable steps to prevent Singh driving a “fatigue regulated heavy vehicle” while knowing the driver was “fatigued, impaired by drugs and unfit to drive”.
In April, Singh, of Cranbourne, was jailed for up to 22 years for culpable driving causing the officers’ deaths as well as trafficking meth, cannabis and 1,4-butanediol.
Magistrate Luisa Bazzani is presiding over the committal hearing.
