KEY POINTS:
Whanau rallied around as grandmother Kaa Mateohorere Hokianga faced sentencing for a moment's driving carelessness that caused the death of one grandson, and a broken arm for the other.
The moment's inattention which let the car drift into the shingle along the central North Island's Desert Road has never been explained.
Defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger said there had been conjecture that Hokianga may have fallen asleep momentarily or may have been distracted for a second by one of the boys receiving a text message.
She had rightly taken the full burden of what had happened upon her own shoulders, and pleaded guilty immediately.
"There is nothing that this court can do to overtake the penalty that Mrs Hokianga has already suffered and that makes this a difficult sentencing exercise," Miss Bulger told Christchurch District Court Judge Michael Crosbie at the sentencing today.
Hokianga, a 68-year-old Papanui woman, had pleaded guilty in September to the charges of careless driving causing death and injury.
The police told of 15-year-old Tuuta Toka receiving head, arm and leg injuries and dying at the scene, and 14-year-old Te Arai Toka receiving a broken arm. Hokianga was not injured but complained of chest pains afterwards.
She had lost control of the car when it drifted into the shingle and she over-corrected. The car ran into a ditch and rolled twice.
Judge Crosbie noted that the accident was a tragic matter. It did not involve dangerous driving, but only a moment's carelessness.
"There is a clear distinction between this type of offending and what we often read about with boy racers causing the death of their friends."
He offered his sympathy to Hokianga and her whanau which had many members in the court. A hui had been held and they were being incredibly supportive, adopting a mature and family-like approach to what had happened.
"This is something that will never leave you," he told Hokianga, who has no previous convictions.
"The family recognises that you have been having difficulty coping with this. You now have your own personal medical issues and the family is rallying round with that," he said.
He saw no need to impose a fine - the family would have paid it for her - but convicted her and imposed a year's disqualification.
- NZPA
