'They're gone': panic after men swept away by flood

Ghosn Ghosn, 30, and Bob Chahine, 32, both drowned in the incident, with their bodies found days later having been swept kilometres downstream.

After he swam to safety and walked nearly an hour to find phone reception, Al Hussein can be heard pleading with emergency services for help.

"Please help, please help. There's two people dying," he says.

"We were crossing the creek, and the water pushed the car and the car's gone with the two people in it."

The group of men had been attempting to cross the flooded causeway at Prestons Creek in Bevendale, in the NSW Southern Tablelands, about 8.30pm on October 31, 2022.

Al Hussein tells the operator that neither of the two men can swim and he had lost sight of them in the darkened raging waters.

"They went. They're gone. We lost them," he said.

"I wish we could see them."

The 43-year-old father breaks down in tears when asked by the operator how he knows the men.

"They're my friends," he sobs.

After the trial began on Monday, Goulburn's District Court was told the group had been attempting to reach a hobby farm owned by Al Hussein just minutes away.

Al Hussein allegedly told the deceased men that their own vehicle wouldn't make it across the flooded causeway and that they should ride on the back of his Mitsubishi Triton ute.

According to prosecutors, the vehicle stalled almost as soon as it entered the "very fast-flowing and relatively deep water" and was quickly swept off the causeway.

"He drove into those floodwaters knowing or believing that there was a significant risk that his vehicle would stall (and) that both passengers could not swim," crown prosecutor Glen Porter told the court.

Defence barrister James Lang argued Al Hussein's action were an error of judgment and not manslaughter. 

"Everyone in their life makes errors of judgment," he said.

"This error of judgment in a very short space of time resulted in the very unfortunate loss of life of two men."

The trial continues.