Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Name to stay secret in mowing incident case

By Sam Hurley
Hawkes Bay Today·
14 Jul, 2014 10:00 PM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The 76-year-old man has gained name suppression after being sentenced to six month home detention for causing the death of a little boy.

The 76-year-old man has gained name suppression after being sentenced to six month home detention for causing the death of a little boy.

A Hastings District Council tractor driver, sentenced to six months' home detention for causing the death of a 4-year-old boy in a mowing incident, will continue to have his identity hidden.

The man, aged 73, had interim name suppression until 5pm yesterday, allowing time for his defence counsel Andru Isac to appeal Judge Jonathan Down's decision to drop name suppression.

The appeal was lodged with Napier District Court yesterday afternoon and grants the driver interim name suppression until a date is set for the appeal.

After entering a guilty plea in May to driving a vehicle dangerously, causing the death of Uetaha Dahtanian Ransfield-Wanoa, the driver was last week sentenced to six months' home detention, 100 hours' community work, disqualified from driving for three years and ordered to pay $5000 reparation.

The tragedy occurred at Kirkpatrick Park in Hastings on October 8, 2013, when Uetaha was run over by the tractor-mower while chasing the machine and playing with two other children, aged 10 and 8.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

An outpouring of public support for the driver has overwhelmed social media sites, after it also emerged that he was also haunted by the loss of his own son in a similar tragedy.

A Givealittle page was set up to help raise money for the $5000 reparation. "This Givealittle page has been set up for the Hawke's Bay tractor driver that I believe was given the wrong sentencing," a message on the page said.

"This was a tragic accident and I believe that the grief this man has gone through already is a big enough price.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I understand this will never bring the wee boy back nor will [it] take the pain away from the families of both parties." The Hawke's Bay Today Facebook page also received more than 200 comments and more than 18,000 views as the local community reacted to the driver's sentencing.

Sherayde Lewis posted: "It's a tragedy on both sides. To the old man who has to live with the horror of what he did, each and every day. And to the young parents who lost their child so tragically. It was a terrible accident."

Discover more

New Zealand|crime

Home detention over lawn mower death

11 Jul 05:30 AM

Driver seeks forgiveness for death of 4-year-old

12 Jul 02:00 AM

Council in court over boy's death

15 Jul 08:00 PM

Kids in tune for appeal

08 Aug 01:08 AM
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Father lying paralysed on rainy mountain bike track saved by daughter's iPhone hunch

10 May 05:00 PM
Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

'Off the scale' drug supply fuelling gang clashes in the regions

10 May 05:00 PM
Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Tickets please: 'You are not going for dinner, you're going for an experience'

10 May 06:01 AM

One tiny baby’s fight to survive

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Father lying paralysed on rainy mountain bike track saved by daughter's iPhone hunch

Father lying paralysed on rainy mountain bike track saved by daughter's iPhone hunch

10 May 05:00 PM

Clayton Hairs is now a tetraplegic. He hopes his survival story will be a wake-up call.

Premium
'Off the scale' drug supply fuelling gang clashes in the regions

'Off the scale' drug supply fuelling gang clashes in the regions

10 May 05:00 PM
Premium
Tickets please: 'You are not going for dinner, you're going for an experience'

Tickets please: 'You are not going for dinner, you're going for an experience'

10 May 06:01 AM
Premium
‘Indescribable beauty’ of Napier-Taupō road in 1898: Gail Pope

‘Indescribable beauty’ of Napier-Taupō road in 1898: Gail Pope

09 May 07:00 PM
Connected workers are safer workers 
sponsored

Connected workers are safer workers 

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP