French tourist pleads guilty

The 59-year-old French tourist who was driving the car that crashed into a motorcycle on Inland Road, at the foot of the Karikari Peninsula, on February 11 will serve two months' home detention at a Whangarei address before he goes home.

Gilles Georges Jego was also ordered to pay emotional harm reparation of $13,000 when he appeared before Judge Greg Davis in the District Court at Whangarei last week for sentence on one conviction of careless driving causing death and two of careless driving causing injury.

The car Jego was driving on the wrong side of the road collided with the motorcycle shortly after crossing a single-lane bridge.

Sixty-year-old English tourist Eileen Tomkinson, who was the pillion passenger, died at the scene, while the rider, local fishing charter operator Stephen Goodwin, and Jego's wife, who was a front-seat passenger in the car, were injured.

Mr Goodwin was flown to Whangarei Hospital by rescue helicopter, where he was in surgery for seven hours as doctors worked on injuries including a broken vertebra.

Mrs Jego suffered neck and chest injuries.

Judge Davis ordered Jego to pay $6500 in emotional harm reparation to Ms Tomkinson's family and the same sum to Mr Goodwin, adding that the forgiving attitude of the victims, Jego's early guilty plea and the sentence imposed would help all sides heal after the tragedy.

"There's a sadness [the victims are feeling] as a consequence of this accidents, [but] they have expressed generosity of spirit towards Mr Jego that, in my view, is remarkable," he said.