Jury retires in Qld road death trial

A Queensland jury has retired to consider its verdict for a New Zealander accused of punching a man during a roadside scuffle and causing him to fall back and into the path of an oncoming truck.

Tamate Henry Heke is fighting allegations he unlawfully killed Shane Merrigan by punching the 50-year-old before he was fatally hit by a rubbish truck on the Gateway Motorway at Eight Mile Plains on December 1, 2015.

He has pleaded not guilty to a charge of manslaughter, as well as to an alternative charge of unlawful striking causing death, with jurors retiring shortly after 11am on Friday.