Youth spared prison over crash into cop

Senior Sergeant Deirdre Lack has begun work again. Photo / Joel Ford

A young man has been spared jail after he admitted causing a head-on collision that almost killed Te Puke's top police officer last year.

Daniel Longney, 20, had fallen asleep at the wheel before his car drifted into the path of Senior Sergeant Deirdre Lack's in the early hours of December 22.

In the Tauranga District Court yesterday, Longney was sentenced to 100 hours' community work after pleading guilty to a charge of careless driving causing injury.

He was also disqualified from driving for six months and ordered to pay $1000 for emotional harm to Ms Lack, who was left fighting for her life after the smash just north of Te Puke on State Highway 2.

The court heard Longney had been on his way to work and had not slept properly for three or four days.

Ms Lack was in hospital for about 10 weeks suffering from a broken pelvis, a broken right femur, breaks to her left tibia and fibular bones, a broken left upper arm and broken right forearm, broken ribs, a pulmonary haemorrhage and lacerations to her spleen and liver.

Defying doctors' expectations, Ms Lack has battled back and last week began working part-time at the Te Puke police station.

She declined to comment on the sentencing yesterday, but her mother, Robyn Lack, told the Herald the family were happy the legal process was over.

"The whole family is relieved. This will bring us closure. It's all gone on for such a long time now."

Mrs Lack said her daughter was focused on continuing her recovery and achieving her next goal - winning a 10km swimming race at Lake Karapiro in December.

Longney could not be contacted.

Ministry of Transport figures show fatigue was a contributing factor in 44 fatal crashes and 140 serious-injury crashes in 2009, the most recent year for which records are available.

The crashes caused 52 deaths, 187 serious injuries and amounted to a social cost of about $335 million - about 9 per cent of the social cost associated with all injury crashes.

Transport Agency spokesman Andy Knackstedt described driver fatigue as a serious road issue.

"Driving while fatigued - whether you're tired, weary, exhausted or jetlagged - can increase your chances of having a crash," he said.

"That's because fatigue slows your reflexes and affects your ability to concentrate and make good decisions." "Fatigued drivers tend to crash at full speed - and we know from statistics that the higher the speed, the higher the risk of death or injury in a crash."