‘‘You breached your responsibilities in the most fundamental way,'' Judge Kevin Phillips told an overseas national who caused a crash which injured five people.
Michel Alix Gerard Leroux (42), of Brussels, Belgium, was driving on the wrong side of the road when his Toyota Highlander collided head-on with an oncoming vehicle on the Te Anau-Milford Highway on the morning of December 8. Six people, including Leroux, were airlifted to Dunedin Hospital with minor to serious injuries.
For sentence in the Dunedin District Court yesterday, Leroux had been convicted of five charges of aggravated careless driving causing injury.
He was ordered to pay $10,000 emotional harm reparation to one victim, $5000 to another, and disqualified from driving for 18 months. When Leroux pleaded guilty last month, the court heard he and his family arrived in New Zealand for a holiday on December 1 and were travelling from Te Anau to Milford for a day trip on December 8.
Leroux was negotiating a right-hand bend when his vehicle crossed the centre line and collided with an oncoming car in which a man and a woman were travelling.
Both vehicles swerved in the same direction to try to avoid the collision.
The woman victim received a broken back and would be unable to sit up for three months from when the accident happened.
The man received broken bones and faced rehabilitation of up to a year.
Leroux was travelling with his partner and two daughters, aged 6 and 10. The 6-year-old received a cracked pelvis and a fractured arm, and the 10-year-old severe bruising.
Counsel John Farrow said he had been asked to publicly communicate Leroux's heartfelt apology for the effects on the victims. ‘‘He accepts his actions have had, and will continue to have, tragic consequences and there is nothing he can do to right that, no matter how much he wants.''
Leroux had familiarised himself with New Zealand road rules and was well-rested. There was no form of conscious risk-taking, Mr Farrow said. Leroux had gone over it ‘‘again and again and again'' but could not explain why he was on the wrong side of the road. The presentence report highlighted Leroux's strong remorse and his attempts to make amends.
Despite being in significant pain from a pre-existing injury and the accident, he had completed 96 hours' voluntary community work in the past two weeks. The male victim anticipated being able to work within 24 weeks, and the woman in a year. With all of his family's savings and $5000 he had borrowed, Leroux had $15,000 available for emotional harm reparation, Mr Farrow said.
Judge Phillips said the victims might not have been killed but life as she once knew it had ended for the woman. In her victim impact statement, she said the defendant's careless act had ruined her ‘‘near-perfect'' life. She and her boyfriend had been only a fifth of the way through a long-awaited trip to New Zealand and Australia before returning to the United Kingdom to start new jobs and set up home. Her injuries included a broken sacrum.
She had surgery to decompress nerves at the end of her spine. Doctors were still unsure of the long-term damage she would have to live with. It would take months of rehabilitation and years for her bones to heal to full strength. She was scared of the unknown full extent of her injuries and whether she had the ability to return to her career.
Judge Phillips said the woman had been ‘‘very pleased'' at having just completed a lengthy tramp. The man's injuries included a broken right thigh bone. His interests included mountaineering and running. He was now on crutches and on physiotherapy. There was nothing the court could do but make compensation, although only representative.
Leroux is to pay $15,000 emotional harm reparation to the couple ($10,000 to the woman and $5000 to the man), and in each case was disqualified from driving for 18 months. Those disqualifications are concurrent, as are one-year disqualifications on the three other charges on which there was no other penalty.
