Drugs not to blame for fatal crash - judge

A truck driver has been convicted of killing a three-year-old boy in a road crash although a judge said it could not be proved beyond doubt cannabis found in his system contributed to the accident.

Allan George Fenty, of Auckland, was found guilty in Hamilton District Court of dangerous driving causing the death of Renzo Thomas and three counts of dangerous driving causing injury, The Waikato Times reported.

Renzo was killed after the family vehicle in which he was a back-seat passenger was struck by a truck-and-trailer unit driven by Fenty on State Highway 39 near Ngahinapouri, 16km southwest of Hamilton, in March last year.

The court was told that Fenty's truck veered across the centreline and collided with the Thomas' vehicle travelling in the opposite direction.

A blood test revealed 2mcg of THC - the active ingredient in cannabis - in Fenty's blood.

Fenty, who admitted to regularly using cannabis, denied smoking the drug on the day of the crash - saying he never smoked at work.

In his reserved decision, Judge Stanley Thorburn said he could not be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Fenty had consumed cannabis in the few hours before the crash and dismissed it as an aggravating feature of the crash.

Instead, Judge Thorburn said Fenty had fallen asleep behind the wheel.

"I'm very comfortable to conclude that here is a man that fell asleep and that on his own evidence knew he was falling asleep."

Fenty knew he was losing concentration and "was addressing his mind to doing something about it but left it too late", Judge Thorburn said.

Fenty was remanded on bail for sentencing in July and the judge ordered a pre-sentence report as well as victim and emotional harm reports.

- NZPA