Crash victim upset at tourist's 'light' sentence

A Wanaka man is upset at what he considers a very light sentence imposed on an Israeli driver who caused a serious crash on State Highway 6 at Gibbston on March 5.

The 60-year-old driver, Walid Baranseh, appeared before Judge David Saunders in the Christchurch District Court on Friday.

He pleaded guilty and was convicted on six charges of careless driving causing injury.

A court spokeswoman told the Otago Daily Times Baranseh was disqualified from driving for a year, fined $1000, court costs $130, and ordered to pay reparation of $1000 to each of three people injured in the crash.

One of those, the Wanaka man's 79-year-old sister, is still in a Christchurch hospital with a broken neck, 12 broken ribs, broken sternum and internal bleeding.

The man said she was having trouble breathing and there was concern about infection.

She had been in hospital for 10 days and he had been told she would not be ready to return home for another five or six weeks.

Doctors expected a full recovery.

''But it is just a long slow process when you are just turning 80. It's horrific really.''

His other sister, aged 75, spent six days in hospital with a broken arm, broken sternum and severe bruising but was now back home.

Her husband, aged 79, was knocked unconscious in the crash, trapped in his car for an hour and had severe lacerations to his face and a cracked pelvis.

He was able to return home yesterday but has to use a walking frame while he recovers.

His carefully maintained Holden Barina car was ''written off'', the man said, and the insurance would not be enough to provide him with another vehicle in equivalent condition.

Constable Terry Wood, of Queenstown, told the ODT after the crash the Israeli driver ''drifted into the wrong lane'' after pulling out from a driveway.

He had crossed the centre line ''to quite a degree''.

The Wanaka man understood Baranseh returned home to Israel from Queenstown on Saturday.

He had made no attempt to contact the family, he said, and ''got away very lightly''.

He ''couldn't believe it'' when police told him about the sentence.

In addition to the pain and cost caused to his family, the man said the crash required three helicopter trips as well as an air ambulance trip, for his sister from Dunedin to Christchurch, paid for by the Government.

The man said his sisters did not want their names made public because they did not want to make a fuss.

He was ''mulling over'' the idea of writing to Judge Saunders to invite him to visit his sister in hospital to find out if she considered being awarded $1000 was of any comfort.

 

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