Picnicker hit by car dies

The Subaru crashed into the women on the grass verge. Photo / Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter

A woman has died after being hit by a suspected drink-driver when she and a friend stopped for a roadside picnic yesterday morning.

Marriage celebrant Marilyn Jeffery, 62, and friend Shelagh Cotter, 69, were picnicking on a grass verge when the driver smashed into them on a country road near Otaki.

Cotter had been sitting on the driver's seat with her feet outside the car, a Honda saloon. She was thrown from the car, over a fence and into a paddock. Jeffery had been relaxing on the grass next to the car.

Both women were taken to Palmerston North Hospital where Jeffery was in serious condition and Cotter listed as critically injured last night.

Police this morning said Cotter, from Te Horo, died of her injuries overnight.

A 37-year-old man Lower Hutt man tested three times over the legal drink-drive limit and will appear in court on November 25.

Police said more charges were likely to follow.

Jeffery's distraught husband Don said his wife was stunned to look up to see the Subaru car hurtling towards her.

Don Jeffery said: "She heard the car coming down the road and luckily she stood up. She woke up by the fence not being able to breathe.

"When she [Marilyn] came to the guy that hit her came out. She was trying to get a breath to say 'help' and then he walked away. She was still cast on the ground."

Cotter and Jeffery had spent the morning enjoying the 2010 Te Horo Bayleys Country Garden tour before stopping for a coffee and roadside snack.

Don Jeffery said the accident that injured his wife and Cotter, their neighbour of seven years, should "never have happened".

"I'd like to know his [driver] name and where he lives and when he's going to court. My family are pretty angry about the whole thing," he said.

Jeffery suffered cuts to her face, bruising, and a cracked sternum. Cotter, who was sitting inside her car when the driver hit, had head injuries.

Shelagh Cotter's husband David and family were "distraught" about the accident, said Don Jeffery.

The women had been looking forward to the garden tour when they left the house yesterday morning. Both women "love their gardens", he said.

Don Jeffery left to collect for the blind, telling his wife to take care as he was leaving. "I came home and there was a message on the answerphone saying 'Marilyn's been in an accident on a country road'.

"I rang David. He rang his wife and didn't get an answer."

When Jeffery reached the hospital and saw his wife "she just broke down and cried".

Debbie Laing, organiser of the garden tour, said a large number of people had joined the event which was to raise money for Civil Defence and the Te Horo hall restoration.

"The whole town is stricken by this. We're a very close, tight-knit community. Everyone is just devastated."

Resident Wayne Stevens said he "heard this massive bloody bang and saw a cloud of dust. I was too frightened to go back."

Neighbour Wayne Putt said the crash sounded like a "big metal bash". He said the impact of the Subaru knocked the two women "10 metres out into the paddock".

Otaki chief fire officer Brent Bythell said the driver "came pelting down the road and lost control on the corner". Witnesses said the car's skid marks measured more than 100m.

- Additional reporting: Leigh van der Stoep, John Weeks, NZPA