An Australian soldier says his colleague was driving an army truck "way too fast" shortly before it flipped, killing a 22-year-old trainee.
Alexander Gall, 24, is on trial in the NSW District Court charged with one count of dangerous driving occasioning death and six counts of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm over the fatal crash at the Holsworthy military base in October 2012.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Sapper Jarrod Robinson said "we definitely picked up speed" and that he heard another soldier yell out "70" and "80" as they travelled along the gravel road which had a speed limit of 40km/h.
"I know people were banging on the cab of the truck. I'm pretty sure I heard them say slow down," Sapper Robinson said.
Sapper Robinson said he felt the truck slide as it approached a sweeping bend before he "came to" on the side of the road next to the truck.
Sapper Jordan Penpraze was killed in the accident, and six other soldiers were seriously injured.
The soldiers had been at a training camp and were returning to base when the accident occurred.
The Crown's case is that Mr Gall was driving too fast on the "rough terrain" when he lost control of the 6.6 tonne Unimog, which had 15 trainees soldiers sitting in the tray without seatbelts and three in the cabin.
Mr Gall has pleaded not guilty, his barrister telling the jury the training his client had received was "hopelessly inadequate" and the supervision of him at the time of the accident "was almost non-existent".
Sapper Robinson said he remembered a distraught Mr Gall apologising repeatedly as they sat at the side of the road at the crash site.
Before the accident, Sapper Robinson said Mr Gall had appeared little nervous as he drove a Unimog and he had seen him stall the truck.
But under cross-examination, Sapper Robinson agreed that, in interviews and inquiries before the trial, he had not mentioned that he heard a colleague yell "80" and/or saw others try to attract Mr Gall's attention.
The lieutenant in charge at the time, Sean Mulligan, agreed that he had been made aware that the speed limit for the range was 40km/h but he had not passed that on to Mr Gall or two other novice drivers.
Mr Mulligan told the court he did not know at the time that Mr Gall had only held a learner's licence before joining the army, or that he had spent a total of 14 hours driving a Unimog before the training exercise.
"What did you do to ensure that those three young soldiers were briefed to the requirement that there was a speed limit?" defence barrister David McLure, SC, asked Mr Mulligan.
"I did not brief them," Mr Mulligan replied.
The court heard that, during the training exercise, Mr Mulligan had noticed one of the novice drivers "look a bit shaky" reversing a Unimog and had told a colleague to "keep an eye on them" and to "provide them with some guidance".
The trial continues.