With tears in his eyes and his head in his hands, a 10-month ordeal for Sydney garbage truck driver Ian Juurik came to an end.
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"It felt like 10 years ... it's been life-changing," he told reporters outside Downing Centre Local Court on Monday.
The 36-year-old was cleared by magistrate Jennifer Giles of negligent driving causing death after he ran over a homeless man sleeping in Bourke Lane in Redfern on May 21, 2018.
In his triple-zero call, Mr Juurik tells the operator: "It looked like a bit of blanket. F***, I just killed someone."
"No one saw it, there's three of us on the truck. And it's a tight lane, and I had nowhere to go, and it looked like a blanket, but I didn't know there was someone under there."
When asked if anyone is talking to the man, he says: "We can't get to him because we're squashed in the lane."
Mathew Hayne, who was 1.58 metres tall and weighed 53 kilograms, had wrapped himself in a thin foam mattress along the road which has 45-centimetre wide sloping footpaths and had cars parked on its left side.
The 31-year-old, described by a responding paramedic as "very, very emaciated", suffered fractures from his left ribs to right pelvis when he went under the truck's front wheels. He died at the scene.
"It appears to him (Mr Juurik) as a blanket with no appearance of containing anyone, no bulge and no movement," the magistrate said on Monday, noting the vehicle had been travelling between one and five km/h.
"I don't believe that can amount to falling short of the standard of care ... to be expected of the ordinary, prudent driver in these circumstances and I'm finding Mr Juurik not guilty."
The Crown had contended he didn't keep a proper lookout and drove over the item without checking it was safe to do so.
The driver's council colleagues last month testified Mr Juurik had to mount the kerb to get the truck down Bourke Lane, labelling it one of the city's "most difficult lanes" and an "obstacle course" of hard rubbish.
Garbage loaders Aaron Owens and Lucas Borg gave evidence they were the "eyes and ears" for Mr Juurik and didn't see the mattress or Mr Hayne beforehand.
The magistrate said Mr Juurik was "almost sobbing" in his triple-zero call and later engaged in a "very distressing" interview.
"Mr Juurik is utterly guileless and completely unguarded in everything he tells the police. I don't believe anyone could doubt anything that Mr Juurik says (in it)," Ms Giles said.
"I did even wonder whether he was in a fit state to be interviewed, it is so full and frank and distressed. You couldn't doubt it."
She described the "miserable circumstances" as "utterly unique".
The victim's mother in March said she'd been trying to locate her eldest son but "was six months too late".
"He has a family and was well-loved," Melissa Hayne said.
Australian Associated Press
