Alister Spong takes the stand over mate's Summernats death

The Queensland man who was driving at Summernats last year when his mate fell off the back of his flat bed truck and died has not driven the vehicle since that day, a jury has heard.

That day started with nervous excitement for Alister Spong, who had driven the 1942 Ford Jailbar truck 1500 kilometres down from Queensland for Canberra’s annual car festival.

The festival is the “be all and end all of the modified car scene”, he said, and he had a modified car business. The truck, which had come from a scrap heap but into which he had invested $40,000 including a turbo engine, was the “showpiece” of his skills.

Alister Spong (second from left), joined by his wife, solicitor Jacob Robertson (left) and barrister Steven Whybrow (right) arrives at the ACT Supreme Court for the trial over his friend's death at Summernats.
Photo: Jamila Toderas

But Mr Spong, 33, told the ACT Supreme Court that since the death of his friend on January 5 after falling from the ute’s flat bed he has not driven the car since. “I can’t,” he said, choking on his words.

Prosecutors contend Mr Spong’s driving was so negligent that day that it met the threshold for the charge of culpable driving, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

The charge alleges Mr Spong failed "unjustifiably and to a gross degree" to observe the standard of care that a reasonable person would have in all the circumstances.

Alister Spong's flat bed ute.
Photo: Supplied

In response to a question from the jury on Thursday, Justice Loukas-Karlsson said culpable driving required a higher standard of negligence than negligent driving.

On January 5, 2017, Mr Spong was lapping the festival’s cruise route, a ring road around the Epic Showgrounds, when he spotted his friend Luke Newsome, a man he knew from working in the mines in Queensland. Mr Newsomem 30, and two friends joined Mr Spong’s wife and another friend on the back of the ute’s tray.

Standing up in court, Mr Spong said the back of the tray came up to his knees. He said he was in first gear and travelling about 10 kilometres an hour when he saw the car in front spin its wheels.

He said he tried to do the same thing, and give the truck’s wheels a “bit of a squirt”, which he said meant causing the tyres to lose traction for about a half to two rotations. He said he had never done a burnout in the truck. “The wheels are too expensive,” he said.

But instead of the “chirping” noise he expected, the car’s wheels "bit" into the bitumen and the car surged forward about two to three metres, he said.

Two of his friends fell off the back of the ute. While one was able to stand and dust himself off, Mr Newsome was knocked unconscious and never woke up. He died in hospital the next day of a severe closed head injury.

Interviewed by police that afternoon, Mr Spong said he had not accounted for the weight of the passengers or the warmth of the road when he attempted the manoeuvre. He stood by the interview when on the stand on Thursday and told the jury those matters had not been in his mind when he tried to chirp the wheels on January 5.

Under cross-examination by prosector Margaret Jones, Mr Spong agreed he knew the car intimately, and that he had not thought about how it might react when he attempted the manoeuvre that day. He agreed, too, there was no one else to think about those things.

The trial continues.