A Beechworth woman is set to face trial after pleading not guilty to charges stemming from a deadly collision on Beechworth-Wangaratta Road last year. The 42-year-old faced Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court on Thursday for a committal hearing facing eight charges which allege she was on GHB when her car collided with Beechworth artist Di Mangan’s Volkswagen Tiguan on 24 May 2025. Ms Mangan died at the scene while the 42-year-old suffered life threatening injuries. The 80-year-old passenger of Ms Mangan’s vehicle also received life-threatening injuries and a seven-year-old girl passenger of the accused’s Mazda CX-8 was airlifted to hospital as a precaution. The court heard the incident occurred on a 571-metre stretch of straight road near Everton Upper and allegedly involved fast swerving of both vehicles before they came together in the eastbound lane. Victoria Police Collision Reconstruction Unit Detective Senior Constable Sandeep Chauhan said police refer to the type of incident as “the dance of death”. He said the scenario often occurred when a driver sees an oncoming vehicle, swerves to avoid them while the other driver swerved simultaneously to cause a collision. The court heard both cars hit the front quarter side panels of each vehicle. Charge sheets allege the 42-year-old recklessly drove in an erratic manner, including driving on the wrong side of the road, stopping in a running lane and excessive speeding past the posted speed limit. Blood tests allegedly found she had GHB in her system to the extent she was “incapable of having proper control of the motor vehicle”. Forensic physician Dr Jason Schreiber said the usual effect of GHB while driving was dramatic and her GHB levels would have been higher than what was later recorded. “At the time of the collision we would have seen a significantly high amount of GHB in the blood and in my opinion would have led to unsafe driving,” he said. The accused was arrested and charged in September 2025, unable to be questioned immediately following the incident due to her injuries. She was also charged with dangerous driving causing death, dangerous driving causing serious injury and drug driving. After the not guilty plea, Magistrate David Faram adjourned the matter to the Melbourne County Court for a directions hearing on 24 August. The court heard the trial would be held in the Wangaratta County Court.
