Arabic version: أرملة تشعر بالارتياح لانتهاء إجراءات قضية حادث الطريق السريع

According to ABC News, Jan Spiess says she is relieved court proceedings have ended over the 2014 South Eastern Freeway crash that killed her husband, Thomas Spiess, and Jacqueline Byrne. Mr Spiess, 56, died after an out-of-control sewage truck collided with his vehicle at the bottom of the freeway on August 18, 2014.

The truck reached 151.9 kilometres per hour before entering the busy intersection. Then-Cleanaway driver Darren Hicks and motorist Louise Compton were injured. Mr Hicks, who lost a leg in the crash and later became a Paralympic gold medallist, was initially charged but the charges were dropped in 2018. He later gave evidence against Cleanaway.

Ms Spiess said the legal process had taken too long and that she had been unable to obtain a death certificate while proceedings were under way. She said the crash, and learning of her husband’s death, caused her PTSD and greatly affected her two daughters. She also said she still considered the intersection dangerous despite safety changes.

South Australian Coroner David Whittle made no further recommendations in findings handed down on Friday. He said preliminary recommendations issued in 2014 had been accepted and implemented, including a 60 kilometre-per-hour limit for trucks travelling downhill and signs requiring trucks and buses to use low gear. The coroner said the upgrades had made the freeway much safer and that there were no longer readily remediable systemic safety issues on that section. In May, Cleanaway was ordered to pay a $1.1 million fine for workplace failures linked to the crash.