A coroner has described the driving of a woman who inadvertently contributed to her husband's death as ''less than ideal''.
John Stephen Leask (80), of Stewart Island, died on August 4 last year of a massive brain haemorrhage, two days after he was either knocked over or caused to fall over by the car his wife was reversing.
He fell on to the roadway, hitting his head on the car and on the road.
A Coroner's Court hearing was held in private in Invercargill on June 11.
In his written findings released on Monday, coroner David Crerar said evidence to the hearing was that Mr Leask and his wife, Dulcie Airdry Louise Dyson-Leask, were ''doing a message'' in Spey St, Invercargill, about 2.45pm on August 2, 2012.
Mrs Leask was driving. She parked across the road from a shop while Mr Leask went into the shop for a few minutes.
The car engine was running and the car was in reverse gear. Mrs Leask had her foot on the brake to stop the car from moving.
When Mr Leask returned, he leaned into the vehicle through the driver's window. Mrs Leask told police her husband thought the car's lights were on, but they were not.
Two witnesses said they saw Mr Leask standing at the right front of the car as it began to reverse. Sandra Dennis saw Mr Leask's head hit the front panel of the car and the right front tyre before he landed on the road.
Deborah Brown saw Mr Leask standing, but moving backwards with the car as it reversed about one and a-half car lengths. She said it was possible the car's wing mirror had caught him and propelled him backwards.
Police who investigated the incident were unable to determine whether Mr Leask was hit by the car before he fell, Senior Constable Kenneth Patterson, of the Southern Serious Crash Unit, said.
Mr Crerar said Mrs Dyson-Leask's attention may not have been totally on where her husband was standing. Evidence was given at the hearing questioning her driving abilities, and in particular her ability to reverse.
He said he was satisfied the movement of the car driven by Mrs Dyson-Leask ''caused or contributed to the fall and eventually to the death of John Leask''.
Her driving was ''less than ideal'', he said.
Mrs Dyson-Leask had chosen to leave the car running with its automatic transmission in gear and stop its momentum by the use of a foot brake.
However, such an action was not ''best practice'', he said.
''[Mrs Dyson-Leask] would have been better to have stopped the car where she did and placed the gear in park, thus ensuring it did not move and ensuring that she was not reliant upon the pedal pressure exerted by her foot to stop momentum.
''Over a period of time, such pedal pressure, particularly from an older driver, is likely to become less, and this in itself may have been one of the contributors to the incident.''
