A Dunkley’s Dairy truck involved in a crash that killed a 21-year-old model should not have been on the road, two experts said yesterday.

Rupert Knight, the Bermuda Police Service head mechanic, told the Supreme Court that the inside of the truck’s front right tyre was worn, which was caused by a defective kingpin bushing — but he also said this would not have affected the truck’s steering.

Mr Knight added: “If I walked out and saw this, the driver would never, ever leave my compound with this vehicle.

“Reason being, with that type of excessive wear on the inside of the tyre, it is suggesting to me that there was an issue on that side of the vehicle that is causing that kind of wear.”

Mr Knight said: “If it was a police vehicle, no way would it have been on the road.”

He insisted that the worn tyre would not have affected the steering of the truck but agreed that it could have caused a loss of traction on a rainy day.

But he added: “I can tell you that definitively, it would never have a problem cornering on a dry day when there is no rain.”

Mr Knight was called as an expert witness in the trial of Clinton Smith, 41, who denies causing the death of Sophie Fraser-Smith by careless driving on July 18 last year.

He explained that he found the abnormal wear on the tyre after being asked to check if the truck’s steering had locked up.

Mr Knight said he had spoken to Richard Thompson, a mechanic at Dunkley’s Dairy, to find out if the vehicle had a steering problem.

He said Mr Thompson said it did not and that the only reported faults were a leak in the cabin and a problem with the transmission.

But Mr Knight said: “Even though he told me that everything was OK, I had to prove to myself that the truck wasn’t locking up or was locking up, either way.

“I had to cover myself as the mechanic of the police garage, given the job I was given to do, where a person’s life depends on my answers, I had to make sure that I was right.”

Mr Knight said that the truck did not lock up when he tested it and that the power-assisted steering worked “perfectly”.

He stressed that if loose steering had been a problem on July 18, it would also have been a problem when he tested the truck because it would have been caused by worn parts. He also emphasised that it would not have been an intermittent problem.

Mr Knight’s evidence came after police Sergeant Preston Gill said Mr Smith told him after the crash that he had informed his employer about a steering problem with the truck.

Two company managers, however, told the court on Thursday that they could not recall Mr Smith complain about a steering problem.

The court had also heard from witness Glenn Woods, a former emergency medical technician, that Mr Smith told a bystander after the crash that he thought he had “dozed off”.

Colin Emery, an examiner at the Transport Control Department, also told the court yesterday that he would not have passed any vehicle with a tyre in that condition.

Mr Emery said: “Uneven wear on the tyre is cause sometimes by the steering alignment being out. When the steering is completely aligned both tyres will be wearing at the same time.”

After being shown a picture of the tyre, he added: “It appears it could be out of alignment.”

Mr Emery said it was also possible that the steering could have appeared loose if the tyre did not have a proper grip on the road.

But Mr Emery added that the steering had not appeared loose when he tested it and that he could not tell if the steering was out of alignment.

Mr Emery said: “It seemed fine while driving”.

The trial continues.

• It is The Royal Gazette’s policy not to allow comments on stories regarding criminal court cases. This is to prevent any statements being published that may jeopardise the outcome of that case.