Appearing before Judge Bernadette Farnan in the Queenstown District Court yesterday, Kristen Le Blanc (28), of Queenstown, admitted careless driving causing injury to her passengers on February 17 — Aisling Donnelly, Stevie Ashton and James Chrapkowski.
Prosecutor Sergeant Ian Collin said Le Blanc was driving along the Arrowtown-Lake Hayes Rd at 5.40pm on February 17 and stopped at the intersection of the road with State Highway 6.
‘‘[She] observed a large ‘B-train’ truck.
‘‘She decided to pull out and attempt to turn right and head towards Queenstown.’’
Sgt Collin said the truck driver — travelling in an 80kmh area — saw Le Blanc pull out and attempted evasive action, but was unable to avoid a collision.
Initially, some of the occupants of Le Blanc’s car were trapped.
All four were taken to Lakes District Hospital.
The front seat passenger sustained cuts to the face, a rear passenger injured their arm and also had facial cuts, while the other rear passenger had cuts to the head.
Le Blanc was ‘‘very apologetic’’ and told police she had ‘‘misjudged the speed of the oncoming truck’’.
Lawyer Tanya Surrey said Le Blanc, a trained nurse, was ‘‘highly distressed’’ about the crash. She was knocked unconscious and had little recall of the immediate aftermath.
All of the passengers were friends — two of them were supporting her in court during the day.
Judge Farnan said the intersection was ‘‘notorious at the best of times’’.
‘‘When I see the damage ... it’s probably good luck rather than good management that there wasn’t more physical damage to all of you.’’
Judge Farnan directed Le Blanc to pay $500 to the New Zealand Ambulance Service, $250 to the Fire and Emergency New Zealand and $250 to the Salvation Army.
She was ordered to pay $390 court costs and disqualified from driving for six months.
