Mark Cummings says his final hope for answers regarding his daughter's death is with a potential coronial inquiry. Photo / Gerard O'Brien
Mark Cummings says his final hope for answers regarding his daughter's death is with a potential coronial inquiry. Photo / Gerard O'Brien
A Mosgiel man whose daughter was killed in a crash has suffered a double blow in his bid for justice and says he is now "out of options".
Nearly three years on from the incident which claimed the life of 15-year-old Jayde Cummings, her father Mark is bereft.
"I feel like I've failed Jayde as a dad, as someone trying to get some answers," he said.
"I've chucked close to $300,000 at it and it's done absolutely nothing."
Cummings recently received a letter from the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) saying the investigation into the crash, which also resulted in the death of Steven Macnee, was "adequate".
And his claim for exemplary damages of $150,000 from the Dunedin City Council, for what he alleged were "obvious and fatal oversights", was flatly refused.
In September 2019, Jayde was the passenger in a ute driven by a teenager along Outram's Church Rd West and into the intersection with Huntly Rd, where it collided with the vehicle driven by Macnee.
In March 2021, the teen was granted an absolute discharge in the Youth Court after admitting careless driving causing death.
Jayde Cummings died after a crash at an Outram intersection in 2019. Photo / Supplied
The judge suppressed publication of the result for several days specifically so Jayde's family could be informed, but the message was never passed on to Cummings and he received the distressing news when he read the newspaper.
He unleashed all his frustration that morning on a central Dunedin legal chambers and the council's offices, and was eventually convicted of three charges of threatening to kill and two of wilful damage.
Police initially told the Otago Daily Times Cummings' lawyer had been informed of the Youth Court result and had failed to relay the message.
However, the IPCA noted that was not true.
"It is clear from the evidence the officer in charge of the case knew the court has asked for this to be done, but took no steps to ensure this occurred ... This was a neglect of duty which had a profound impact on you and should not have happened," case resolution manager Griffyn Gully-Davies said.
A police spokeswoman said they were under the mistaken impression the lawyer had been informed, and confirmed senior staff had apologised in person to Cummings.
In March, the grieving father wrote to the council through a lawyer claiming exemplary damages.
That was based on the fact vegetation was covering an undersized stop sign on the approach to the intersection, meaning the teen driver may have continued through it without even knowing he should stop.
But lawyer Philippa Fee, on behalf of the DCC, said that stop sign was only one of three along that stretch — more than Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, recommended.
The obscured stop sign, which has since been upgraded, met regulations when it was installed in 2001, and there was no retrospective onus on the council to replace such signs when new recommendations came into effect, she said.
In any case, Fee said, compensation in such a case was barred by statute.
Cummings told the ODT he struggled to sum up the devastation of the past three years.
"It's cost me my marriage of 17 years. It's cost me so much. It's cost my family so much," he said.
"I've run out of options. There's nowhere else to turn. I've got to leave it the way it is and move on, for my own health."
His final hope lay with a coronial inquest but, with the well-documented delays in that system, he knew it might be several years before it took place.
"I've been frozen in time since Jayde's accident and that knock on the door," he said.
