They were heading south on Waitomo Valley Rd, and as the victim drove around the corner, Woodard’s vehicle appeared in the wrong lane.
The victim had nowhere to go, while Woodard steered his vehicle to the right, going further into his lane, and eventually crashing head-on.
The victim suffered a large gash to his leg.
Woodard told police at the time he had just turned around and wasn’t out of the right-hand lane when the victim’s car appeared.
The victim sought costs for loss of wages for being off work, insurance excess, emotional harm, and damage to his car totalling $2290.
Andrea Smith, appearing on behalf of Woodard, told community magistrate Ngaire Mascelle her client had no history and was a retired police officer from the United States.
Court documents listed his address as being in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Correcting his earlier comments to police, Smith said her client had decided to turn further into the wrong lane to reduce the impact of the crash.
“That’s why he pulled into the right-hand lane, to evade the accident.”
Her client wished he could have apologised to the victim and met with them for a restorative justice conference, but they were due to fly home on Saturday.
That had been pushed out to the 23rd due to the injuries Woodard, who was aided by the use of a walker, and his wife had suffered.
Woodard was also still suffering back and chest pain, she said.
“He has lived here previously and came to New Zealand to bring [his wife] here for their wedding anniversary.”
Woodard had $1500 ready to pay immediately towards reparation, and Smith successfully submitted the remainder of the costs could be covered by insurance.
“The victim’s insurance would be waived since he wasn’t at fault, and Mr Woodard had the rental fully insured so the rest should be covered by that.”
Mascelle accepted his previous good history and offer for reparation but queried his decision to pull further into the opposing lane to try to prevent a crash.
“You say that you were trying to actually turn in front of the vehicle to minimise the impact, but I’m not quite sure where that rests.
“In any event, the victim suffered an injury to his leg, and fortunately he wasn’t killed and neither were you.”
Mascelle said there was always a risk for tourists who come from countries that drive on the opposite side of the road.
“That’s always a chance that people take when they go to different countries, they have to drive on the opposite side than what they’re used to.
“There might be a situation where they find themselves out rurally somewhere and they end up on the wrong side of the road.
“Unfortunately, I have seen that quite a few times over the years, and of course when they’re faced with a vehicle coming towards them, their natural instinct is to revert to their normal practice to swerve as they would back home.”
She convicted Woodard and ordered him to pay $1500 reparation to the victim by 4pm today and disqualified him from driving for six months.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and been a journalist for 20.
