Training anomaly factor in crash

A coroner's inquest into the deaths of an Israeli tourist and a Telford Rural Polytechnic student whose cars collided near Balclutha last year has found driver inexperience and failure to react to the developing situation caused the accident.

In his finding released earlier this month, coroner David Crerar attributed the deaths of Meimei Cloete and Mr Eliyahu Ben David to the injuries they received in a car accident near the Finegand freezing works, Balclutha, on March 19 last year.

Israeli tourist Mr Ben David (22), died at the scene on March 19 due to "extensive traumatic transverse basal skull fractures and brain injuries due to a severe impact to the face".

Telford Rural Polytechnic student Miss Cloete (17), of Rotorua, died in Dunedin Hospital on March 21 as the result of "a severe head injury and other injuries received."

A Coroner's Court hearing was held at Balclutha on March 25.

In his finding, Mr Crerar said neither of the drivers had reacted to the developing situation, suggesting they did not fully understand the hazard.

This was due to a combination of driver inexperience, conflicting driving training and conflicting expectations about how the other driver would react, he found.

Driver expectancy - the belief that things will happen and be arranged in a certain way - developed from exposure to the behaviour of other drivers, Mr Crerar said.

A New Zealand-trained driver would expect a vehicle approaching directly on the incorrect side of the road to move out of the way.

Miss Cloete was a New Zealand-trained driver and was taught to drive on the left.

When she recognised the vehicle approaching in her lane, she would have expected the other vehicle to move out of the way, and was, therefore, unable to avoid a collision, he said.

"This expectancy no doubt added to the delay in perception by Meimei Cloete."

Mr Ben David had been trained in Israel on the right, and was inexperienced at driving a car with a manual transmission.

When he recognised the vehicle approaching in the same lane, his obligation to change lanes would have conflicted with his training.

"If he did recognise that he was in the incorrect side of the road, he may have taken evasive action, but this would have been problematic, due to his training."

It was determined that speed, alcohol and drugs were not factors for either driver, and there were no contributing vehicle faults.

Another issue highlighted by Mr Crerar was around driver licensing.

While Mr Ben David held an international driver licence, it was not clear whether held a current Israeli driver licence.

Miss Cloete held a restricted licence.

Her front seat passenger had a full licence, but had not held it long enough to act as a legal supervisor.

The Serious Crash Unit investigation found no evidence of either driver reacting to the developing situation.