SH2 merging lane fatal: Lucilla Brunt sentenced for her part in 'avoidable' crash

A driver who caused a crash that killed a young man and injured two others when she failed to merge after a passing lane, has lost her licence for six months.

The victim's mother, Nicola Armstrong, told Lucilla Linda Brunt at her sentencing today that her teenage son David Armstrong's death in the "avoidable" crash has changed her family's life forever.

Nicola Armstrong said the pain and devastation of her son's death is still raw and she remembers clearly the day she got the phone call telling her David, a twin, was dead.

"In that moment my whole word stopped and changed forever...I felt like I died in that driveway that day.

"I had to step inside and tell my three children that their brother was dead."

Brunt was sentenced to the disqualification and 200 hours' community work for causing the 19-year-old's death in 2020 while the two were on State Highway 2 near Upper Hutt, north of Wellington.

The 36-year-old Wairarapa woman was found guilty of careless driving causing death after a two-day judge-alone trial in the Wellington District Court in May.

Lucilla Brunt sitting with her lawyer Mike Antunovic when she was found guilty in May this year. Photo / Hazel Osborne

The cause of the crash is that neither driver slowed to allow the other in, with Brunt putting other road users at risk by failing to yield and let Armstrong pass, Judge Michael Mika said.

Brunt and Armstrong were travelling south along State Highway 2 on November 14, 2020 when the crash claimed the teenager's life and injured Caron and Mark Lancaster in the oncoming lane.

Armstrong was behind a vehicle in the left lane and Brunt was at the front of the queue on the right.

The two lanes would become one with a merging lane 100 metres from the lights but when both cars moved through the intersection neither merged.

They travelled 400m, driving at approximately 103km/h side by side before disaster struck.

The left-front of Brunt's vehicle collided with the rear right-side door of Armstrong's Nissan, causing his car to spin into the northbound lane and collide with the Lancasters' Toyota. He died at the scene.

During the trial, Senior Constable Lisa Toseland gave evidence that there were a number of options available to Brunt, including slowing down and giving way to Armstrong.

"Either of those vehicles could have dropped back to allow the other to go ahead," Toseland told the court.

Defence lawyer Mike Antunovic said his client felt boxed in with nowhere to go, and he claimed the teen's driving was forcing her into oncoming traffic.

After Brunt was found guilty Judge Mika said a reasonable and prudent driver would have reduced their speed to let Armstrong pass.

Instead she asked her daughter to film the incident while the two vehicles travelled side by side, but no video evidence was produced at the trial.

The judge said when Brunt failed to slow down it put all road users at risk and tragically claimed a life.

Nicola Armstrong said she used to be proud of how close her children were, that closeness now terrifies her.

David's twin brother Cain often gets mistaken for his dead brother and faces the loss of his other half every day when he looks in the mirror.

David's youngest sister Trinity has said she was ready to die because she missed her brother so much.

Other members of David's family gave emotional victim impact statements to the court including his grandmother Sue Kennedy.

She still sometimes waits for David to come bounding through the door.

She said he had plans for the future but all of those plans for marriage, children and his 21st birthday - to be celebrated this year with his twin brother – were taken away that sunny November morning.

Brunt was found guilty by Judge Mika in May this year. Photo / Hazel Osborne

"We lost so much after his death," Kennedy said. "We have lost a young man poised at the beginning of his life who had so much potential.

"David took a piece of my heart with him when he died... the loss will be with me for the rest of my life."

Antunovic argued for his client to receive a discharge without conviction, and said disqualification from driving would put Brunt's daughter, who has additional needs, at risk.

Judge Mika declined to give a discharge without conviction and said the gravity of the "extremely tragic" offending called for conviction.

Brunt attended two restorative justice meetings with family members of David, both of which were highly emotional.

Judge Mika accepted Brunt was remorseful for her actions, but considered conviction was appropriate.

Acting Wellington District road policing manager Senior Sergeant Matt Fitzgerald said the incident was a reminder to "always drive with patience and courtesy, which in this case could have prevented these tragic consequences from occurring".

"Getting to where you're going a few minutes early is not worth the risk of potentially endangering yourself, your passengers and other road users."

In the year Armstrong died, road deaths totalled 320, the Ministry of Transport reported.

Of those numbers 155 were driving, 63 were passengers, 57 were people on motorcycles, 32 were pedestrians and 11 were cycling.

In 113 of those deaths, the crashes involved speed, which was a factor in the fatal crash between Armstrong and Brunt as both maintained a speed of over the 100km/h limit.

Last year 319 people died on New Zealand roads and so far this year, the number sits at 226.