The families of five people who died in a crash outside a pub say the diabetic driver who killed them should face a criminal trial.
"It’s very simple - we need justice," said Vikas Sharma, the brother of crash victim Pratibha Sharma, while speaking to media outside court on Tuesday.
William Swale's lawyers have called for his case to be thrown out by a magistrate as prosecutors concluded their evidence, following two days of expert and witness testimony.
The 66-year-old is fighting 14 charges over the November 2023 crash, including five counts of culpable driving causing death, negligently causing serious injury, and reckless conduct endangering life.
Swale, who lives with diabetes, claims to have suffered a severe hyperglycaemic attack, as his blood sugar levels dropped to dangerously low levels causing him to pass out while driving, Ballarat Magistrates Court was told.
He then mounted the kerb in his BMW SUV about 6.07pm on November 5, hitting several people seated outside the Royal Daylesford Hotel.
Pratibha Sharma, 44, her daughter Anvi, 9, and partner Jatin Kumar, 30, were killed along with their friend Vivek Bhatia, 38, and his son Vihaan, 11.
Prosecutors allege Swale, who was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes in 1994, ignored warnings from a device about his blood glucose levels declining before he suffered a hypoglycaemic episode while driving.
Swale's blood glucose levels dropped from 7.8 over two hours to 2.9 before the crash, the court was told.
A paramedic on Monday said Swale's level was below 1.1 after the crash.
Diabetes specialist Matthew Cohen, who has been treating Swale for about 30 years, said he told him he received "no notifications" from his device before the crash.
However, he also said Swale would have "no memory" of the crash due to his severe hypoglycaemic state before and after the collision.
"He would've been close to death," Dr Cohen told the court.
"The brain requires a certain level of glucose to function effectively, the lower the glucose the less the brain is functioning until death occurs.
"It wouldn't surprise me if he had no memory of any of these events."
Earlier, the court was told Swale tried to get a seat at winespeake cellar + deli, across the roundabout from Royal Daylesford Hotel.
He visited at 5.42pm, after an alert about his blood glucose levels dropping, but was turned away as the store was full.
Endocrinologist John Carter, who has helped create Australian guidelines on diabetes and driving, said Swale would have been aware he needed to ingest carbohydrates at that time.
"That was why he went into the cellar and deli," Prof Carter told the court.
"In the absence of treatment ... high glucose levels and inadequate carbohydrate intake, eventually that person will become disoriented, confused and glucose level drops far enough that we are comatose."
Swale went back to his vehicle where he sat stationary for about 20 minutes before the crash, his barrister Dermot Dann KC told the court.
He said Swale drove about 300m in that time.
Mr Dann said the prosecution had "no case" as his client was suffering a severe hypoglycaemic attack and had no understanding of what he was doing when he got back in the car.
There was no evidence Swale had attempted to steer the vehicle or hit the brakes before it collided into the patrons outside the pub, he said.
Paramedics treated Swale at the scene by giving him a glucagon injection and sugar water.
Swale, who remains on bail, will return to court on Wednesday where his lawyers will outline their case.
Magistrate Guillaume Bailin will then decide if Swale should be committed to stand trial.
Outside the court, Vivek Bhatia's father Ashok said he hoped Swale would be committed to stand trial.
"The answer is very simple, there’s a lot of evidence against him," he told reporters.
