Not guilty plea over Arrowtown butcher's death

A Mt Pisa man has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter after a car crash at Arrow Junction that killed Royalburn Station's head butcher.

Hayden Richard Hurst, 29, appeared for the first time by audio-visual link in the High Court at Invercargill this morning.

He is charged in relation to a crash on December 16 near the Crown Range turn-off on State Highway 6 that killed Outrega (Tre) Anderson.

Hurst was originally charged with drink-driving causing death and later an additional charge of drug-impaired driving causing death.

Court documents say Hurst, who was seriously injured in the two-car collision, had a blood-alcohol level of 131mg. The legal limit is 50mg.

The defendant was remanded on bail to next appear in June. 

A trial date of August 25 next year was set.

Mr Anderson was employed as the head butcher at Royalburn Station, owned by Nadia Lim and Carlos Bagrie.