Drunk and disqualified drivers Ronnie Takao (left) and Brock Moffat both died in September 2023. Composite photo / NZME
Two drunk and disqualified drivers killed in separate crashes two days apart, have prompted a coroner to deliver a Christmas warning message.
Ronnie Kohi Hoera Takao and Brock Moffat died in September last year.
Both had been disqualified from driving and had driving-related convictions. Both had left social gatherings and despite being urged not to, had driven anyway.
Takao’s blood alcohol level was more than five times the legal driving limit. Moffat was three times over.
Both were speeding and stoned. Takao had methamphetamine in his system and Moffat had cannabis.
Both were unrestrained and their deaths weren’t witnessed by anyone.
Coroner Ian Telford said these sad cases, and many more like them, illustrated the extensive and devastating consequences that can flow from making such dangerous choices.
The coroner described their cases as a dreadful tragedy leading to yet another needless loss of young life in a completely avoidable car crash.
He had a simple message as the summer holidays approach and people are out partying.
“Driving whilst impaired by alcohol and drugs can lead to death and serious injury – to you and other people. Do not do it under any circumstances and do everything you can to stop anyone else,” he said.
Takao lived in Rotorua, but on the evening of September 1, 2023 he was at a family gathering in Rūātoki, in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
In 2012, he was indefinitely disqualified following his third drink-driving conviction in two years.
At the party Takao, 31, asked to borrow his uncle’s car Honda, threatening to smash a bottle over his uncle’s head.
Because Takao was drunk and disqualified, the uncle refused. But Takao found the keys and used the car several times to buy alcohol and drugs.
The coroner found people at the gathering tried to stop him, but he went anyway.
Telford found Takao made his last trip in the Honda shortly before midnight to see his parents in Whakatāne.
On his way there Takao crashed on a straight stretch of Taneatua Rd, south of Whakatāne.
In his findings, the coroner found Takao lost control, over corrected and crashed into a bank on the opposite side of the road. The Honda rode up the bank before it vaulted through the air back towards the road. Takao was thrown from the car and discovered dead, by another motorist, on the side of the road.
The coroner found Takao died from non-survivable injuries to his neck and chest.
Two days later, Moffat was drinking at a friend’s place in his home town of Matamata. The 23-year-old started drinking pre-mixed bourbon at around 2pm and also smoked some cannabis. Later that evening he was asked to leave the party because of his behaviour.
He was discouraged from driving but did so anyway, the coroner found.
Shortly after 8pm Moffat’s BMW was seen doing burnouts on Tauranga Rd and hit a barrier. Moffat drove off at high speed.
Minutes later Moffat crashed his car on Tauranga Rd in Te Poi. The coroner found he’d failed to negotiate a left-hand bend and lost control. The BMW rotated and overturned before crashing into a large tree.
The motorist who’d earlier seen Moffat doing burnouts chanced across the fatal scene, describing the BMW “buried in a tree”.
The coroner found Moffat died on September 4, 2023 of non-survivable traumatic injuries to his skull and brain.
Telford concluded his findings by extending his condolences to the families and friends of both men, who would be feeling their loss particularly keenly over the festive season.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.
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