The victim of an alleged road rage attack was on the phone with his best friend shortly before he died.
Stacey Disbray said she was connected on a phone call to Rhyce Harding as he was allegedly dragged 100 metres by a ute along Jersey Road in Blackett about 8.45am yesterday.
“I had to listen to my best friend die,” she told 9News today.
“He goes ‘hang on a second, I’ll be back”, she said.
“He never came back. I had to listen to my best friend die, and all the ambulances, I had to listen to them try to revive him.”
Disbray recounted the last thing he reportedly said to her.
“He said ‘Hang on, he’s just rear-ended me'” she said.
“He stopped the car, and I heard it pull over and I heard the handbrake. For 40 minutes I sat on that call, hoping for…not this outcome.”
Court papers claim the alleged driver, 39-year-old Bradley Wilkinson, had a teenage boy in the passenger seat of his ute as he sped up Jersey Road, cutting off Harding, who was driving a red Ford Ranger.
Approached by the victim, police allege Wilkinson held onto Harding’s jumper, dragging him 40 metres and running him over.
Wilkinson was charged with manslaughter, failing to stop and assist after vehicle impact causing death, negligent driving (occasioning death), and dangerous driving occasioning death – drive manner dangerous.
Wilkinson told police it was Harding who grabbed him, before he drove away in fear for his safety.
Wilkinson went on to complete a full shift at work, before parking his ute 200 metres from his home in Windsor.
He told police he knew something had happened, but thought if it was serious detectives would have come to his workplace.
In court, Wilkinson’s lawyer Javid Faiz questioned if the most serious charge of manslaughter would eventually be downgraded.
That decision will depend on the evidence given by police and the circumstances surrounding the case.
Speaking to reporters outside Parramatta local court, Faiz said it was “too early to say at this point, the matters are before the court.”