A Newcastle man has been cleared of all charges related to a fatal motorbike crash that killed his friend nearly four years ago at Wyee.
Timothy Gillmer, 36, was found not guilty of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death by a Newcastle District Court jury on Monday afternoon.
The fatal night at Wyee
The tragic incident occurred on February 11, 2022, when Gillmer and his friend Todd Heiler left their local club together on a Kawasaki ZX-14 motorbike.
As the motorcycle approached the intersection of Government Road and Ruttleys Road at Wyee, it veered onto the wrong side of the road, skidded for approximately 60 metres, and crashed into bushland, striking several trees.
Mr Heiler, aged 32, was thrown from the motorcycle and died at the scene.
Mr Gillmer suffered serious injuries but managed to crawl out of the scrub and back to the roadside, where he called for help.
The central question: Who was riding?
The trial focused entirely on one critical issue: determining who was actually operating the motorcycle at the time of the crash.
Mr Gillmer had consistently denied being the rider, maintaining throughout the legal proceedings that he was the pillion passenger that night.
Crash investigation experts, including a civil engineer and a forensic biomechanist, provided evidence to the court examining skid marks, motorcycle damage, and the injuries sustained by both men.
The jury heard that Mr Gillmer had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.167, which would have placed him in the high-range drink driving category if he had been piloting the vehicle.
Jury deliberation and verdict
After hearing all evidence and deliberating for slightly over a day, the jury returned with their not guilty verdict on Monday afternoon.
The acquittal means the jury must have been left with at least some reasonable doubt that Mr Gillmer was the rider of the motorbike on the night of the fatal crash.
Had he been convicted, Mr Gillmer faced a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison for the aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death charge.
The verdict brings closure to a legal process that spanned nearly four years since the tragic events of February 2022.
The case highlights the complexities involved in determining fault in serious vehicle accidents, particularly when key evidence about who was operating the vehicle remains contested.
