Janine was not only his sister but his confidante and key person in also looking after their 92-year-old mother, which had added another level of anguish.
The 63-year-old lived a “beautiful life” and loved entertaining family and friends in her Raglan home.
“Janine had a loving partner whose life is forever changed ... marked by the profound loss of his life partner.”
She was also a devoted mother to four, now adult, children who were having to navigate life without her.
“I implore the court to consider the immeasurable impact Janine’s death has had on our family.”
April 22, 2023
On the day of the crash, Lahood began his shift delivering bread around Hamilton and Raglan at 4.18am.
The weather on the day was wet, making road conditions difficult.
Lahood was driving a Hyundai van fitted with a Navman dash camera, which helped investigators analyse his driving.
By 6.40am, he’d finished his Hamilton deliveries and was heading west towards Raglan on State Highway 23.
However, on the way, his Navman showed the van drifting across the centre line and side fog lines multiple times after he went past Whatawhata.
That increased the further he went towards Raglan.
As Lahood’s driving deteriorated, Melis and Maclarn were heading in the opposite direction to pick up a family member from Hamilton, before going to Auckland.
Melis was driving her Nissan Pulsar while her 70-year-old partner was asleep in the passenger seat.
As Melis’ vehicle approached from the other direction, Lahood again drifted on to the wrong side of the road but this time the van remained there and the cars collided head-on.
She died at the scene. Maclarn was taken to Waikato Hospital with a small brain bleed, multiple cuts to his face, fractured sternum and soreness.
Lahood had minor injuries and was also taken to the hospital, where a blood sample was taken for impairment testing.
It returned a THC (cannabis) reading of 3.6 nanograms per millilitres of blood, which exceeded the “high risk” level of 3. The tolerance level is 1.
At the time, Lahood was not meant to be driving as he was yet to reinstate his licence after it was suspended due to excessive demerit points.
‘Expresses his sincere remorse’
Lahood’s counsel Glenn Dixon said his client understood and accepted the family’s grief and wanted to express his “sincere remorse” to them all.
He was always keen to make it clear to the family that the cannabis smoking occurred the evening before, and he wasn’t smoking it as he drove down the road.
He’d also attended restorative justice with two of Melis’ daughters, which had been successful.
Lahood had completed two full years of university study towards a Bachelor of Nursing degree, “that career is now at (an) end ... for probably the next 10 years to ever apply for practising certificate for a registered nurse”.
“It’s a consequence of his own making,” Dixon said, adding that Lahood had worked for about five years in the Wairarapa as a caregiver.
“He’s a natural carer, and it was a natural progression to become a fulltime health worker,” Dixon said.
“He has to live with the fact he’s caused irreparable harm to a whole lot of people and it’s something he will never forget.”
‘You should not have been driving’
Judge Crayton accepted the offending was “multi-faceted”; there had been a family harm event at Lahood’s house that evening, he’d smoked cannabis and had little sleep.
He was also keen to ensure a message was sent to people about the “latent effect” or the time for how long drugs remained in somebody’s system and the effect it could have them.
“Driving at that time, when you are not fit ... there are potentially devastating consequences.
“The message does need to be clearly understood by the community,” he said.
However, he noted it wasn’t just a singular, momentary lapse of Lahood’s driving; there were several times he veered across the centre line.
The judge also noted a comment by one of Melis’ daughters, who in her victim impact statement, told Lahood to accept whatever penance the law thought was right and to “do better and be better”.
Judge Crayton found Lahood’s remorse was genuine and deserved the maximum discount of 8%.
Lahood was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention, disqualified from driving for three years, and to pay $2500 to a charity of the victim’s family’s choice.
His sentence will also be judicially monitored and include 12 months of post-detention conditions.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.
