A woman accused of causing the death of a teenager in a Christmas Day crash has again fronted court, charged with negligent driving and driving while under the influence of drugs.
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Elizabeth Anne Quill has denied causing the death of 18-year-old Jayden John Pearce on Pipers River Road at Lower Turners Marsh on December 25 in 2018.
The 36-year-old has been accused of driving on the wrong side of the road and colliding with another car - a car that Mr Pearce was a passenger in.
But her lawyer Alan Hensley has argued the driver of the other vehicle was the one who lost control and that Ms Quill was taking evasive action when the crash occurred.
During the first day of the hearing in the Launceston Magistrates Court on Tuesday, that other driver took the stand as a special witness.
Jackson Spratt was travelling with his friend of 17 years, Mr Pearce, when the crash happened.
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The now 20-year-old told the court he saw a car coming toward him in his lane.
That was when he said he hit the brakes, and steered into the other lane to try and avoid a crash.
But, according to Mr Spratt, the driver of the oncoming vehicle started to travel back into the correct lane at the same time, and the passenger sides of each car collided.
"Next thing I know I am looking into a ditch," he said.
He tried to wake up Mr Pearce, who was hunched over in the passenger seat, but got no response.
He said he noticed fuel leaking from the other car, and went to help the other driver who he realised was Ms Quill - someone he previously knew.
"I said 'hey Liz, are you OK' ... she said something like 'oh no, what have I done'," he told the court.
Mr Spratt said Ms Quill did not recognise him, and he had to tell her what had happened "like five times".
"She was like 'I'm so sorry', but then she just kept asking what had happened," he said.
Cross-examining the witness, Mr Hensley questioned Mr Spratt's driving behaviour in the lead up to the crash.
He suggested Mr Spratt had been distracted by a phone call and was speeding, but Mr Spratt denied both suggestions. When Mr Hensley repeatedly questioned his memory of the crash, Mr Spratt became visibly upset, and stormed out mid-questioning.
The court then viewed a police interview with Ms Quill from 2019.
During the interview, she admitted to police she had taken ice the day before, but said she felt "pretty good" on the day of the crash.
She did not recall the crash, and only remembered seeing a car "right in front" of her.
"I have been trying so hard to piece it together, and work it out ... but I can't," she told police.
Mr Pearce was critically injured in the crash, and died from those injuries four days after, on December 29.
The hearing before Magistrate Simon Brown was scheduled to continue on Wednesday, with Tasmania Police crash investigators expected to take the stand.
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