A truck driver who hit and killed a prominent vet as he cycled on a southern Queensland road has been sentenced to three years' jail.
Geoffrey Joseph Sleba struck vet Martin Pearson near Warwick on Anzac Day 2014.
A jury found the 47-year-old guilty of the dangerous operation of a vehicle in February but acquitted him of leaving the scene, believing his account that he did not realise he had hit him.
Brisbane District Court Judge Leanne Clare said in sentencing him on Monday that Dr Pearson was in Sleba's line of sight for 13 seconds before the collision.
"That is a very long time in terms of an opportunity for an alert driver to notice a traveller in the same lane," she said, adding the vet was wearing a fluorescent vest and white helmet when he was hit on a sunny day about 3.15pm.
But Judge Clare said Sleba did not not notice he had hit Dr Pearson because he was "asleep at the wheel or too fatigued to notice him".
"You should not have been on the road," she said.
The court heard Sleba, who had undiagnosed sleep apnea at the time of the collision, stopped for lunch but made the decision to keep driving.
"It was not a main road, it was a public holiday and you were not expecting cyclists to be on the road but it was a road in use," Judge Clare said.
"If that were not bad enough you were driving the 60-tonne rig so the deadly risks should've been obvious."
Judge Clare sentenced Sleba, who had a long history of speeding, to three years' jail.
But it will be suspended after he serves 13 months.
Sleba's driver's licence was also disqualified for two years.
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