A honeymooner has been cleared of reckless driving after his young bride Marina was killed when their golf cart overturned on Hamilton Island.
Robbie Awad, 32, sat stoically with his hands in his lap on Friday afternoon as Judge Karrie O’Callaghan at Proserpine Magistrates’ Court ruled that his fatal U-turn on June 20, 2022, was not too dangerous for a reasonable driver in the circumstances.
Mr Awad’s mother, brother and friends breathed a sigh of relief when the verdict was announced.
Mr Awad admitted to Queensland police that neither he nor his wife were wearing their seat belts at the time of the accident.
He also admitted to using his mobile phone during the ride, even though it was safely in his pocket at the time of the fatal accident.
Mr Awad was concerned that his buggy’s battery was running low as the car kept slowing down as he drove the pair up a hill.
He tried to turn the vehicle around and drive back to the Qualia resort, but the cart crashed, overturned and his bride, Marina Hanna, was killed.
At the heart of the case against Mr Awad was the dispute over whether Mr Awad could have used his golf cart – the standard mode of transport on the tourist island – in a safer manner.
The prosecutors argued that he could, while the defense argued that he could not.
Robbie Awad nervously played with rosaries around his neck in court on Friday. Above, arriving with attorney Bryan Wrench
Judge O’Callaghan ultimately accepted the evidence of a defence witness, a forensic expert, that the likely cause of the crash was the downward-facing topography of the crash site, gravity and the difficult performance of the golf cart.
She concluded that the fact that neither the man nor the woman was wearing a seat belt had little effect on the outcome.
Both the prosecution and the defense cited forensic experts with differing opinions on the cause of the fatal incident (as shown in the image above).
Prosecution witness Detective Sergeant Gemma Williamson told the court on Thursday that a number of factors contributed to the crash.
Some of those reasons included the terrain and the fact that neither newlywed couple was wearing a seat belt at the time.
But on Friday morning the defence called another forensic expert, former NRMA chief traffic engineer Grant Johnson.
Mr Johnson told the court the couple’s decision not to wear seatbelts would have made only a “marginal difference” to the fatality of the crash.
Mr Johnson visited Hamilton Island in March 2023 and used an app to create a 3D model of the crash site to assess the terrain. He then used virtual software to recreate the golf cart accident.
Mr Johnson told the court he had no criticism of Awad’s decision to make an illegal U-turn, given the driver’s explanation that he was having battery problems at the time and experiencing unexpected acceleration.
He said the lack of seat belts would have made only a “negligible difference” to the risk of the buggy tipping over.
Awad is pictured with his wife Marina on their wedding day. Weeks later she died on their honeymoon to Hamilton Island
Golf carts are widely used by Hamilton Island guests to explore the island
‘When you wear the seat belt, forward motion is stopped, but sideways motion – even with the [accelerator] “In the event of a sudden ascent, this will happen with or without a seat belt, due to the lack of side impact protection,” he said.
He did not believe that he acted “recklessly” based on Awad’s version of the circumstances.
“What he did up until the wave formed, he was reasonable, he would have made the turn without incident,” Johnson said.
“But according to his own statement, he then became a passenger in a turbo roll.”
Police prosecutor Sergeant Linden Pollard explained to Mr Johnson that in order to make the correct U-turn, Awad should have slowed down.
The slope of the hill would have been slightly less, making it a safer option.
Mr Johnson said that was “potentially” the case, but noted that Mr Awad said he doubted it. “I can’t rule out that the option was there.”
Magistrate O’Callaghan fined Mr Awad $3,483 because both passengers in the buggy were not wearing seat belts and were using a mobile phone while driving.
Mr Awad declined to comment outside court.