Allan Michael Dyson: Hit-and-run truckie guilty decades after six-year-old Rian Strathdee’s death

After almost 20 years of waiting, the family of a boy killed after their car was thrown off the road by a speeding truck say they have received justice with the driver’s guilty verdict.

Rian Strathdee was six years old and asleep in the back of his family’s station wagon when a Kenworth truck driven by Allan Michael Dyson slammed into it.

The collision, which took place after 9.30pm on the Hume Highway southwest of Sydney in November 2004, made the Subaru spin out and roll down an embankment until it landed on its roof.

Rian was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene while his father Laurie Strathdee and another boy in the vehicle were severely injured.

Dyson fled and was located by police 18 years later when he was arrested in Queensland in October 2022 and extradited to NSW.

Initially denying any involvement, the 61-year-old eventually admitted he was behind the wheel during a criminal trial in Goulburn District Court.

That trial ran until Friday when — after less than two hours of deliberations — a jury found Dyson guilty of one count of dangerous driving occasioning death and two counts of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm.

During the seven-day trial, Dyson’s legal counsel tried to shift the blame for the collision onto Rian’s mother Jasmine Payget, who was driving the Subaru.

It was suggested she was driving too slowly and had failed to properly check her mirrors before pulling out onto the highway.

The jury rejected these claims and the truck driver will face a sentencing hearing on October 18.

In a statement, Rian’s relieved family said the outcome marked almost 20 years of waiting for justice to be served.

“We love you Rian and we will never forget you,” his parents wrote.

Mr Strathdee said there was finally some accountability for Dyson over his actions after “20 years of cowardice, 20 years of denial from the driver, 20 years of trying to find an answer, 20 years of holding our pain in a box”.

But he still could not understand how the truckie could leave the scene of the fatal and tragic crash and only admit being the driver 20 years later.

Ms Payget said hit-and-run crashes were particularly cruel, adding further distress to the grief of losing a child.

During the trial, she told jurors she felt the car “fill with light” moments before the impact and she simultaneously heard the sound of a truck horn blowing.

Mr Strathdee told the court he heard a crash and a bang before feeling the car become airborne.

The couple blacked out and woke to find themselves hanging upside down in the vehicle.

Another witness driving nearby and listening to his UHF radio heard someone with a strong Australian accent say, “I have sorted out the Subaru. Now they are in the paddock”.

Prosecutors argued the man speaking was Dyson, a claim he denied.