Lifetime of grief for driver in double fatal crash

Any penalty imposed on a young man would be outweighed by the lifetime penalty of losing his two best friends, a lawyer told Wellington District Court yesterday.

Lisone Cummings, 20, of Porirua, was appearing for sentence on two charges of careless driving causing death.

The charges arose from a crash near Wellington's ferry terminal on a rainy Saturday night last October.

David Setu Patrick Iafeta, 19, and Jimmy Junior Rere, 20, were both thrown from the car and died at the scene.

Mr Iafeta landed in the ferry terminal car park 20 metres below when the car went into a skid on the motorway flyover near Aotea Quay off-ramp and struck two median barriers.

Cummings' lawyer Michael Bott said his client was tormented by grief and pain, the Dominion Post reported.

Judge Andrew Becroft said the victim impact statements from the families of the dead men would draw "tears from a stone".

The court heard that Cummings told police that, when the car went into a skid, he screamed, shut his eyes and locked his arms in fear.

Mr Iafeta, in the back, was not wearing a seatbelt. Mr Rere, who was in the front passenger seat, was wearing a belt but crash investigators found it had looped around the seat lever and was severed in the crash.

Cummings was sentenced to three months' home detention, 300 hours' community work and disqualified from driving for 18 months.

- NZPA