The truck driver who killed AFL journalist Sam Landsberger wants to get back behind the wheel again, despite being banned for two years after the fatal accident.
Herald Sun journalist Landsberger, 35, died after last month’s crash in Richmond, Melbourne, when he was rushed to The Alfred Hospital but couldn’t be revived.
Truck driver James Alexanda Latchford, 45, of Seaford in Melbourne’s south-east, was hit by a mandatory two-year driving ban after he allegedly refused to give police a blood sample following the accident.
In Victoria, drivers refusing to comply with a blood sample request are automatically given the two-year suspension whether there is anything illicit in their system or not.
Latchford was charged after his refusal but he is now bidding to overturn the ban, and appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday to contest it.
But Latchford’s bid to return to the road was slammed by the Pedestrian Council of Australia spokesman Harold Scruby.
‘Forget two years off the road, it should be two years’ jail,’ he said. ‘I’m arguing it’s nowhere near enough. If that was Norway you’d be put in jail.
‘You’ve got to have a mechanism that not only takes away their licence.’
Sporting a red mullet, Latchford refused to comment outside court.
Emergency services were called to the crash scene after reports of a collision involving a truck and a pedestrian at the intersection of Bridge Rd and Church St at about 10.20am that.
Landsberger had been crossing the road at the time and had been on the phone to his mum when he was hit by the truck.
Latchford stopped at the scene and spoke to police about the circumstances of the collision.
Latchford was uninjured and released by police at the time pending further enquiries.
Victoria Police later confirmed the roadside drug and alcohol tests he took at the time returned negative results.
But when officers asked him for a blood sample, he allegedly refused to do so.
Latchford was charged on summons and served a notice banning him from driving.
On Monday, his lawyer Michael Pena-Rees told Judicial Registrar Stephanie Keogh-Barnes his client had intended to come to court for a sentence indication.
‘Ultimately the charge that is before the court, which is to refuse the blood test, has a mandatory two-year period attached to it if he is found guilty of that offence,’ Mr Pena-Rees said.
‘There is a provision in the legislation to appeal the immediate suspension, the one that the police issued. It is not what was foreshadowed as the application today.’
The court heard Latchford was keen to have the immediate suspension overturned so he could get back on the road.
‘A sentencing indication is not going to allow Mr Latchford to appeal the notice provided by police,’Mr Pena-Rees said.
‘That places myself in a dilemma and Mr Latchford in that the sentencing indication is not the right application to make today.’
The court heard Latchford’s lawyers hoped to speak to the officer who issued the suspension and prosecutors about pushing forward with the appeal.
‘It’s unfortunate your honour that today is not a sentencing indication as such,’ Mr Pena-Rees said.
The matter was adjourned to October 15 to allow Latchford’s lawyer to put together his appeal.
Landsberger had worked at NewsCorp for the past 14 years and was tipped to eventually become the paper’s chief AFL writer as well, as being a regular contributor to Fox Footy, offering his deep insights into the game.
The reporter’s dad, Dr Jake Landsberger, said he son had been speaking to his mother Anne on the phone when he was hit by the truck.
‘Anne was on the phone with Sam when it happened, heard the hit, she heard the commotion, and we’ve been beside ourselves worrying whether she actually possibly distracted him,’ Jake told the Herald Sun.
‘Anne was talking to him as he was walking down across the road to go and meet (his friend and former Herald Sun colleague) Nick Smart.
‘The next thing there was commotion, a stranger picked up the phone, and said: ‘Who am I talking to’. Anne said: ‘I’m Sam’s mother, who are you’.
‘And he said, “I’m sorry to say but your son has just been hit by a vehicle … he’s lying on the ground”. The man conversed with Sam initially until he lost consciousness.’
Jake revealed that the stranger messaged the family on WhatsApp on Wednesday.
‘He messaged us and said, “I told Sam I was on the phone with his mother and he was at peace knowing that he was communicating with you through me”.’
Reflecting on the outpouring of love for his son, Jake said: ‘I can’t put into words the comfort, the joy and the pride we are getting from that.
‘By the time we both took two sleeping pills to go to bed about 9pm on Tuesday, I personally had received in excess of 250 messages and Anne probably the same.
‘The tributes, watching AFL360, seeing The Tackle had been postponed, the stories all over the media…
‘I said to Anne while we sat at our table bawling our eyes out, I wish I could go back to the morgue in the coroner’s court, just wake Sam up briefly and say, “Sam, look how much you were loved, look how much you were admired”.
‘Because he had no idea. He did not realise. I spoke to him so many times about this being his dream job, I kept saying you’ve achieved your dream and he’d keep looking at me and say, “Yeah, thanks dad”. He was very self-deprecating.
‘The degree to what we’ve seen has blown us to smithereens.’
Jake, the long-time club doctor at the Western Bulldogs, said his son’s shattering death has devastated the family.
‘This is a nightmare for all of us,’ he said. ‘We loved him so much.
‘I remember saying to patients – and we’re living it now – I remember saying, a parent should never bury one of their children. And that’s now us.
‘Anne’s mother passed away in New Zealand two or three months ago, she was 94. Not this age (Sam was 35). It’s indescribable.
‘We constantly look at each other and we think, look at what we’ve lost and what he’s lost in the future.’
