A careless driving charge has been dismissed after a prosecutor told the court it was the complainant in the matter who was at fault for a car crash, not the accused man.
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The 47-year-old accused man, who The Courier has chosen not to name because he avoided a conviction, was driving his Mitsubishi ute west on the Western Freeway between the Brown Hill and Wendouree exits just before 5pm on September 23, 2020.
The complainant in the matter, who was in a Toyota ute and was towing a large tandem trailer at the time, overtook the accused from the left-hand lane, cutting him off.
The court was told the complainant's trailer "clipped" the accused's ute and in an effort to get the Toyota driver to pull over, the Mitsubishi driver flashed his lights and sped up beside him.
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The Toyota veered to the right lane and collided with the accused and the Mitsubishi spun 180 degrees.
The court heard the men blamed each other for the collision.
"In fairness to this accused the victim wasn't charged ... perhaps they should have been," the police prosecutor said.
"This accused is driving in the right hand lane, the victim attempts to undercut the accused and merges in front of this accused.
"Careless driving is probably attributed to both drivers.
"I don't attribute any fault of the collision to this accused."
Magistrate Hugh Radford said he did not condone either drivers' behaviour.
"You've accepted the wrongdoing," the magistrate told the accused.
"But given the circumstances ... the charges are simply proved and dismissed."
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