Drunk Westport schoolboy contributed to own death

File photo / Michael Craig

Coroner Richard McElrea, has ruled that Westport schoolboy Thomas Elworthy contributed to his own death by wandering drunk on State highway 67 near Westport on October 7, 2011.

Thomas and a friend were walking, at 6.30am, in a northerly direction along an unlit section of the road towards Carters Beach at 6.30am about 600m south of the Buller River Bridge when he was struck by a car.

The two youths and a third person had been drinking whisky in Westport before the pair decided to walk back to their home address at Carters Beach.

The driver of a Toyota Corona approaching from behind, suddenly saw him appear in the middle of the lane and tried unsuccessfully to swerve to the right to avoid him.

Thomas was struck by the front of the vehicle, receiving fatal injuries.

His blood-alcohol level, at 133 milligrams, was more than one and a half times the legal limit for an adult.

The friend said that Thomas was a little unsteady on his feet and at one stage during the walk home, he ran out in front of an approaching car and then darted back to the kerb.

Senior constable Simon Burbery, of the Tasman Police Crash Investigation Unit noted that the youths, "clearly intoxicated and unsteady on their feet" were attempting to walk along a highway in complete darkness without any torchlight.

There was adequate room on both sides of the roadway for the pedestrians to move clear of the approaching vehicles and Thomas was moving across the path of the Toyota outside of the approaching driver's direct line of illuminated vision.

Police were satisfied from the scene examination and subsequent inquiries that Thomas's death was caused through his actions and no action was to be taken with respect to the driver of the vehicle.

The coroner said there was nothing in the evidence to suggest that Thomas intended to cause his own death.

- The Greymouth Star