Judge in Dylan Dahl trial visits scene of West Dapto crash

Dahl, 24, from Barrack Heights, was injured in the December 2016 crash on Cleveland Road.

He was pulled from the driver’s seat of the burning Honda Civic after the crash and taken to hospital in a critical condition.

Robinson, sitting in the passenger seat could not be freed by rescuers and died in the fire.

Dahl has been charged with dangerous driving occasioning death, and has pleaded not guilty.

Acting Judge Stephen Walmsley began hearing the case last week.

On Monday, he along with Crown prosecutor David Scully and defence barrister Hugh White visited several locations along Cleveland Drive.

While sections of Cleveland Road were closed by police, the judge and the two legal teams – accompanied by sheriffs and court staff – visited the isolated home of a witness just west of the crash site.

They also visited the crash site, near a bend around 1.5 kilometres west of the Cleveland Road-Princes Highway intersection, where Mr Scully pointed out the faded yellow lines marking the road that showed the path of the car before it hit a tree at the front of a residential property.

They then headed southwest for a brief visit to the Cleveland Road and Avondale Road, where the judge, prosecutor, defence counsel and others remained in their vehicles.

The Crown alleges Dahl was “joy riding” at speeds over 100km/h when he slowed to take the corner.

"He then cut the corner but was simply going too fast, slammed on his brakes and careered into the tree,” Mr Scully said in his opening address last week.

Dean Robertson, a witness who lives along Cleveland Road, told the court last week that a car travelling “well over 140km/h” sped past his house before seeing brake lights as it approached the bend.

The car disappeared from Mr Robertson's sight when it went over a crest before the bend. He then heard voices and saw flames coming up over the crest.

Mr Robertson agreed with Dahl's defence barrister that his speed estimate was “only really guess work” and that he could have been wrong in his estimation of the car’s speed.

Police crash investigators who examined the West Dapto crash scene estimated Dahl was travelling at a speed somewhere between 95km/h and 105km/h at the point of impact.

Dahl’s defence team disputes that speed and it is expected that they will call their own expert witnesses later in the trial.

The trial is continuing.