KEY POINTS:
A Tauranga teenager today admitted the manslaughter of a 20-year-old he hit at high speed while taking part in illegal late-night street racing at Mt Maunganui in May.
Jeffrey Douglas Luke, now 19, pleaded guilty before Judge Russell Callender during a brief appearance in Tauranga District Court.
It
was revealed that Luke admitted at the time that his high performance Mitsubishi Galant VR4 had recently been written off the road by police due to modifications to the suspension.
He had remedied the vehicle and had it recertified but the weekend before the fatality he had removed the repaired suspension and re-installed the original modification which had led to him being ordered off the road.
Luke was convicted today and remanded on continued bail, with strict conditions, before his sentencing in the High Court at Rotorua on October 19.
Judge Callender directed that a restorative justice conference be explored with the family of Scott Finn, 20, who died instantly when the car hit him.
"That will happen. The will is there," said Luke's lawyer Tony Balme.
The 16-year-old driver of the car Luke was racing will appear for a depositions hearing later this week to determine whether he will stand trial for manslaughter.
Luke, who works in the automotive industry, earlier had interim name suppression because his co-accused was before the Youth Court.
Crown prosecutor Rob Ronayne said Western Bay of Plenty police and the community had for some time been concerned at the activities of people known as "boy racers."
They gathered at night to conduct illegal street races and burnouts, mainly in industrial areas.
During the early hours of Saturday, May 19, a group congregated in Aviation Drive, a cul de sac at Mt Maunganui, he told the court.
Scott Finn was one of two starters. The first held the cars until the road was cleared then set the vehicles off on a rolling start toward the second starter, who would signal the drivers of the competing vehicles to go.
Mr Finn, acting as second starter, was about 100 metres from the intersection of Aerodrome Road and Aviation Drive, standing on the left side of the road.
Luke, then 18, was the driver and sole occupant of a Mitsubishi Galant VR4 registered in his name. He had a full licence.
The two accused agreed to race about 2am. Both vehicles took off down Aviation Drive, did a u-turn at the end and drove back. Luke was in front and witnesses described the cars travelling at high speed, Mr Ronayne said.
Mr Finn was standing on the road next to a stationary car with his back toward the two speeding vehicles. He was struck by Luke's car, which was travelling on the wrong side of the road, and thrown into the air, landing "some considerable distance" away.
Luke stopped and waited until police arrived, telling them he had not seen Mr Finn before the impact. He estimated his speed might have been as high as 130km/h to 150km/h and thought he had just changed from third to fourth gear.
Mr Balme said crash investigators had put the average minimum speed on impact at 91km/h.
Family members watched silently from the public gallery as a subdued Luke stood in the dock and declined to talk to reporters later.
- NZPA
