A man who caused the death of his fiancée after driving through North Taieri floods has been sentenced to seven months' home detention.
Garry Stephen Harvey (35) appeared in the Dunedin District Court this afternoon after pleading guilty to reckless driving causing the death of 29-year-old Sarah Jane Shirley.
As well as serving home detention he is to perform 150 hours' community work and is disqualified from driving for one year.
Harvey and Ms Shirley were at home on July 12 last year when they heard from a friend who had driven through three fords during the heavy rainfall.
Harvey had recently bought a 4WD and was keen to test the new truck so the three headed south from Dunedin.
There were closure signs up at Silver Stream Rd but they disregarded them and approached the ford.
Harvey expressed some concern about the volume of water — later measured in the area at 40cu m per second — but his friend reassured him that he had earlier passed through in a smaller vehicle.
Before attempting the pass, only the two men removed their seatbelts and opened their windows.
Harvey put the vehicle into 4WD mode and set off.
The force of the water shunted the vehicle sideways before it rolled several times, coming to a rest on its roof 20m downstream.
The two men escaped but Ms Shirley was trapped and their desperate attempts to reach her were unsuccessful.
Her body was recovered by search and rescue personnel.
After Crown counsel Robin Bates read a victim impact statement from Ms Shirley's parents, Judge David Robinson thanked them for their "very carefully chosen words" and "conciliatory tone".
Counsel Steve Turner spoke of Harvey's "very profound" remorse.
And the judge described the outcome of restorative justice as "positive". It was a mark of the character of all that they wanted to stay in touch, he said.
