Moment's inattention caused family deaths

An Auckland woman who killed four members of her family in a car accident last Christmas Eve has been sentenced to 75 hours' community service for careless driving causing death.

Janine Helen Brooks failed to take an easy right-hand bend on State Highway 1 near Cambridge and ploughed head-on into a van.

Her mother, sister, brother-in-law and niece were killed. The two elderly occupants of the van were badly injured.

Judge Robert Spear told 29-year-old Brooks the accident was caused by a moment's inattention at the wheel.

At an earlier defended hearing, he found her guilty of four charges of careless driving causing death and two of causing injury.

Brooks was also disqualified from driving for 12 months.

"We all make mistakes and it is often said, 'To err is human'. The tragedy here is the consequences of your mistake," Judge Spear said.

Brooks sat with her hand over her face for the sentencing in the Hamilton District Court.

She spends much of every day at her family's graveside. She can no longer work because of injuries suffered in the accident and as such was unable to pay a fine or do periodic detention as punishment.

Judge Spear said it was unfortunate that Brooks - who cannot remember anything about the crash - did not accept she was the cause of the accident.

"It is going to make it very difficult for you to deal with the loss of the accident. That is, the loss to you."

Brooks left her Panmure home last Christmas Eve, intending to take her Australian relatives on a day trip, and headed towards Hamilton.

Her sister, Tanya Carol Elizabeth Campbell, 34, was home from Queensland for the holidays with her husband, Paul Christopher Campbell, 38, and their 4-year-old daughter, Renee.

Tanya and Janine's mother, Marjorie Jean Brooks, joined them that day and sat in the front passenger seat.

Ambulance officers described the crash as one of the worst accidents they had ever attended.

The van's occupants, elderly Rotorua couple John and Mavis McDonald, loaded it with Christmas presents and left their Lake Rotoiti home to visit family in Hamilton when they were hit by Brooks' vehicle.

Mrs McDonald said the sentence was fair as Brooks had been punished enough.

"We were quite glad that she was found guilty so that she was held responsible for the accident.

"But I really don't wish anything worse to happen to her than what has already happened," she said.

The couple have only just begun walking again without crutches and both will suffer ongoing health problems as a result of the accident.

For Brooks, lawyer Tom Ingram argued that the carelessness involved was at the low end of the spectrum, and that she otherwise "led a blameless life and is facing charges that would be an ordinary citizen's worse nightmare".

Police believe Brooks was responsible for the accident after being inattentive, veering off the side of the road before attempting to regain control and swerving into the oncoming lane.

Judge Spear said he agonised for many hours before finding Brooks guilty, and for many more in the lead-up to sentencing.

He made his decision on "the [low] level of carelessness, not the consequences" and told Brooks that the life of the McDonalds was "changed forever by a person they had never heard of".

Brooks' father, Brian, previously told the Herald that the charges were just another part of a saga that "had been hell the whole way along".

The family did not wish to comment yesterday but were understood to be considering an appeal against Brooks' convictions.