An unaccompanied learner driver has admitted responsibility for a truck accident that killed a worker at a National Broadband Network start-up site in Kiama three months ago.
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Joe Gouveia died after being crushed between two trucks at the Seaview Street site on May 31.
The 57-year-old, from Lake Heights, was pinned between a stationary truck owned by a concreting company working at a nearby house and a second truck operated by an NBN Co contractor.
Woonona man Tylah Windley, 22, yesterday faced Wollongong Local Court on three charges stemming from the incident.
He pleaded guilty to negligent driving occasioning death, being an unaccompanied learner driver and driving with an illicit drug - cannabis - present in his blood.
Police documents before the court said Windley and a co-worker were operating an Isuzu tipper truck on the day, which had been driven to the site that morning.
The truck was parked parallel to the kerb out the front of a Seaview Street home, about one to two metres behind a Ford Trader truck.
The co-worker had left the Isuzu's motor running, while the two began shovelling dirt from the back of the truck and raking the nature strip.
Mr Gouveia, who was working with the NBN Co contractor, returned to the Ford truck about 11.30am and had a short conversation with Windley's co-worker.
The police documents said Windley got into the driver seat of the Isuzu with the idea of reversing it so he could clean up dirt that had spilled into the gutter.
However, Windley had unknowingly shifted the vehicle into second gear instead of reverse.
When he attempted to move the vehicle it lurched forward, pinning Mr Gouveia between both trucks.
Mr Gouveia was fatally injured and died at the scene.
A blood sample taken from Windley returned a positive reading for cannabis. However police said the levels detected could not be considered to be a contributing factor.
Windley handed himself into police three days later and participated in a formal interview, at which time he admitted he was driving the vehicle and was the sole person inside the truck's cab.
Windley has been referred to the MERIT drug treatment program ahead of sentencing on October 8.