Editorial: We must learn from park death

Uetaha's lasting legacy should be that all our children will be safer in the public spaces created for their enjoyment.

They say that a parent never recovers from the death of a child.

I suppose part of the reason is that children have so much promise and their exuberance makes you want to believe their future will be bright.

When a young life is cut short, hope dies.

The death of 4-year-old Uetaha Dahtanian Ransfield-Wanoa on October 8, 2013, when he was run over by a council mower at Kirkpatrick Park in Hastings was a tragedy in which there are no winners.

There has been much emotion and, at times, anger around who was to blame for his death. The mower driver, Ross David Pollock, and the Hastings District Council have admitted guilt and been sentenced. Accusations and condemnation have been thrown in other directions as well, but what is sometimes lost in the detail is that a carefree young boy lost his life in the most horrific of circumstances.

Yesterday, the council was fined $29,500 in the Hastings District Court for health and safety failings and ordered to make a $65,000 emotional harm reparation payment to Uetaha's family.

This follows on from Pollock's guilty plea last year. He was then sentenced to six months' home detention, 100 hours' community work, disqualified from driving for three years and ordered to pay $5000 reparation. Pollock later appealed the driving disqualification period, which was reduced to 18 months.

It has been a difficult time for all concerned and hopefully such an incident will never happen again in any of our communities. Uetaha's lasting legacy should be that all our children will be safer in the public spaces created for their enjoyment.