KEY POINTS:
A teenager has accepted the police claim that he was racing at the time of Christchurch's Main North Road high speed crash in which the mother of ACT political candidate Aaron Keown was killed.
Brad Jordan Nicholls had initially denied the racing when he pleaded guilty to the dangerous driving charge, and the matter was sent to a disputed facts hearing before his sentencing could proceed.
When he pleaded guilty, he said he had not been racing but he was "in a hurry to get home".
In the meantime, he agreed to accept the police summary of facts as it was, and was sentenced by Christchurch District Court Judge David Holderness to 200 hours of community work and disqualified from driving for 15 months.
Police said Nicholls, 19, had been driving at 120km/h along the Main North Road when he overtook a car driven by Arcanie Vincent Optetaia Matagi, 25, a printer.
Matagi then overtook Nicholls' vehicle and lost control at the end of the manoeuvre. Police estimated Matagi's car could have been going at 150km/h when it collided with a car coming the other way and killed Laureen Helen Reilly and badly injured another person.
Police say Nicholls' car ploughed into the back of Matagi's car during the pile-up.
Mrs Reilly's death triggered a political campaign with Mr Keown deciding to stand for Parliament to campaign for harsher penalties for criminals.
Matagi pleaded guilty last week and is due to be sentenced on November 25. The Crown is still to decide whether to proceed with a manslaughter charge instead.
- NZPA
