Sydney man on trial over killer crash

A jury has heard Michael John Severino was speeding and drunk when he rolled his car before dawn one morning last year, in a crash that killed his friend, Kaileigh Fryer.

But on the opening day of his Downing Centre District Court trial in Sydney, the accused man's barrister Carolyn Devenport SC suggested Severino was not the one behind the wheel.

Severino pleaded not guilty to causing the crash that resulted in Ms Fryer, 19, being thrown from his Toyota Corolla in Terrey Hills, in Sydney's north, in the early hours of April 9, 2014.

Crown prosecutor Richard Herps told the court on Monday that Severino had admitted he was driving when he was questioned by emergency workers and members of the public as the dust from the accident was still settling.

"Although he has sustained some injuries, we would say (these were) not so substantial as to prevent him from knowing what's going on," Mr Herps said.

Prosecutors allege that Severino was driving 15 kilometres above the speed limit at the time of the crash, and that at 5.50am on April 9 - about an hour-and-a-half after the crash - he recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.161.

The court heard neither Ms Fryer or Severino was wearing a seatbelt, and both had been to a Manly pub a few hours earlier.

But Ms Davenport will argue Severino was "to say the least, confused" about the circumstances leading up to the crash.

He had been found lying unconscious on the grass beside the passenger side of the car, she said.

The trial continues.