WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains an image and name of a person who is deceased.
Chilling footage has been aired in court of the moment an Indigenous teenager was sent flying through the air after his trail bike collided with a police vehicle.
Benedict Bryant, 47, was behind the wheel when Jai Kalani Wright rode the bike into his unmarked police vehicle in inner-city Sydney on February 19, 2022.
The 16-year-old was thrown off his bike and suffered critical head injuries, dying at Prince Alfred Hospital the following day.
The sergeant has pleaded not guilty to a charge of dangerous driving occasioning death and faced Darlinghurst District Court today for the first day of his judge-alone trial.
Bryant had been alerted to a teen riding an allegedly stolen trail bike through the streets of Eveleigh and was instructed not to pursue him, crown prosecutor Philip Strickland SC told the court.
The CCTV footage of the collision played in court showed the moment the teen swerved in front of a police car, accelerating loudly as he veered into a bike lane.
The court was told the trail bike was estimated to have been travelling at around 68 km/h in a 40km/h zone as it sped down the lane and hit an obstruction, which sent Jai airborne.
Bryant had crossed the intersection to turn right and stopped near the end of the bike lane without his lights or sirens activated when the teen collided with his car, Strickland said.
Confronting surveillance footage from a nearby post office shows Jai hitting the windscreen and cartwheeling through the air before hitting the ground 15 metres away without a helmet.
Jai’s family and friends – many wearing T-shirts with his image – packed the courtroom, spilling out of the public gallery and into seats normally reserved for jury members.
Some of them left the courtroom when the footage of the collision was played.
Others were seen wiping away tears.
Strickland said Bryant created a real risk of collision when he turned across the path of Jai’s bike while his view of the teen was obstructed.
The sergeant effectively created a roadblock without authorisation or reasonable grounds and ought to have known that a resulting “collision would potentially be catastrophic”, the prosecutor said.
“Our case is that in the circumstances of this case, as an experienced police officer with some 20 years of experience, the accused ought to have been aware of the potential danger,” Strickland said.
But the police sergeant’s lawyer said another police officer, also in an unmarked car, created a roadblock, which meant Jai had to manoeuvre around him and into a vehicle he didn’t see.
“It created a situation where my client was unaware anyone could even come through (from the bike lane),” Brent Haverfield told the court.
Bryant was very familiar with the area and thought Jai would have to divert his path because of the way the bike lane ended, his lawyer said.
In a police interview after the crash, Bryant said he had stopped where he did to be out of the way of the trail bike but that the bike’s speed “was a surprise to me”.
His trial is expected to run for up to seven days before Judge Jane Culver.
Jai’s family held a traditional smoking ceremony outside the court today before proceedings began.
For 24/7 crisis support run by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, contact 13YARN (13 92 76).
Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyond blue on 1300 22 4636.
