Warning: Distressing details
A Hamilton man who has admitted to causing a crash which killed a 39-year-old mother and her two-month-old baby girl, had fallen asleep behind the wheel and drifted into the oncoming lane.
Ethan Rawiri Collier-Whitewood, 27, of Bader, appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Wednesday after earlier pleading guilty to two charges of careless driving causing death and two of careless driving causing injury.
Soriah Harper-Griggs and her mother, Mandi Chanel Harper, were in the car Collier-Whitewood struck about 2pm on February 1 on State Highway 26, near Eureka.
Also in the car was Harper's partner, Mark Griggs, who, via audio-visual link, delivered a vivid, anguished account of the crash.
He spoke of how he saw Collier-Whitewood's car drifting across the centre-line towards him just moments before the impact and then feeling the radiator fluid of the sleeping driver's car hitting his face.
From that point 'my life completely fell apart”.
He looked over to see his wife's 'beautiful eyes staring straight through me” and then checked on their baby in the back seat.
'You split my daughter's head open,” he told Collier-Whitewood, who was sitting almost doubled-over in the dock.
The baby's lips and eyes had already 'turned a colour I can't get out of my head”.
At that point he realised his partner was still breathing but as he held on to her and tried to console her, her breath became more shallow and stopped.
Others were on the scene by this time, Griggs said, but after looking into his car and seeing the carnage each turned away and offered him no assistance. Collier-Whitewood behaved similarly.
'After everything you caused, you did nothing. Not even a ‘sorry'.”
Griggs left the defendant in no doubt of his estimation of him.
'Did you see what you did to my girls? ... I bet it haunts you, doesn't it. I hope so.
'I hate you. I hate you so much ... You will always be that guy who broke my family. You will never be forgiven.”
Collier-Whitewood also addressed the court and spoke of 'how deeply sorry I am for the pain I have caused you all. The guilt that I feel will always lay heavily on my heart.”
He would give anything to go back to that day and stop himself from driving, he said.
His statement drew a spontaneous response from Griggs.
'Empty words, mate. Empty words. You don't deserve peace.”
At that point Judge Philip Crayton interjected, and warned Griggs his connection would be put on mute if he spoke out again.
'There are certain things I must allow to happen and certain things I cannot allow to happen.”
Collier-Whitewood's counsel, Glen Prentice, told the court his client had no explanation for why he fell asleep at the wheel.
'He was not up all night or anything like that.”
Prentice conceded that 'nothing can be said to mitigate the understandable anger” of the victims' families, however, he took issue with a pre-sentence report that recommended a term of imprisonment.
Such a sentence would be well out of step with the penalties imposed for similar offending.
'There was never any doubt he was going to enter a guilty plea. This case has destroyed a family ... The ultimate tragedy has occurred.”
His client had $15,000 to offer in reparation to the family of the mother and daughter he killed, however there were no funds left over to pay a second man – who was in a car travelling behind the one being driven by Harper – who was also injured in the smash.
Collier-Whitewood's insurance would have to take care of their needs, he said.
Judge Crayton agreed the sentence needed to be commensurate with that imposed by other judges for such offences, however he acknowledged the victims' families would be left feeling that it would be extremely inadequate.
'The enormity of your actions can never be truly reflected by this sentence,” he told Collier-Whitewood.
A police crash expert who investigated the fatal smash had recommended ongoing education for drivers of the dangers of fatigue and inattention.
'We all know that there are warning signs that we must not ignore ... Anyone who drives a vehicle can be both a victim and the offender.”
Judge Crayton sentenced Collier-Whitewood to three months of home detention, 200 hours of community work, and ordered him to pay the offered reparation.
Collier-Whitewood was also disqualified from driving for 12 months.
5 comments
Have to wonder.
Posted on 17-11-2022 11:14 | By morepork
If alcohol wasn't a factor and he had not been pulling long nights, this should be a wakeup call to all of us. The "monotony" of the highway can be hypnotic, and at the very first sign of sleepiness or wandering awareness, pull over. The 10 minutes you take could save not only your own, but someone else's, life. As you get older you come to realize that the pressing needs you have to be somewhere are NOT "life-and-death", but they CAN be if you ignore tiredness when in control of a lethal weapon. I don't think we'll ever get to Zero, but we should certainly try to.
Going to become more common...
Posted on 17-11-2022 12:12 | By The Professor
Falling asleep at the wheel is likely to become more common due to a reduction in speed limits. There is nothing more boring than travelling along a road which is long and straight and should be 100km/h but NZTA decided that 70 or 80 would be safer. People will rubbish this, but it's a fact that long journeys in particular are boring and monotonous and slow speeds don't help.
Not speeding
Posted on 17-11-2022 13:33 | By CliftonGuy
Clearly, despite the authorities' mantra that speed kills, there are other factors such as this. Try find a lay-by on the motorway where a person can pull over and take a rest. These are few and far between. So a person soldiers on until a tragedy happens. The authorities have been casting the first stones without taking responsibility themselves. We see the motorbike adverts on TV pressing the point towards Zero crashes. Why then are these riders all dressed in black, a colour hardly conducive to visibility against a dark tarmac road. Hypocrasy rules!
Pull off areas on motorways
Posted on 17-11-2022 16:09 | By oceans
I amny parts of America the highways are separated by extremely wide grassed areas. Every now and then situated between the highways is a pull off area with shopping, toilets, eateries. Something like this would have avoided the deaths. If someone falls off to sleep while driving they would end up in the grass between the two highways. IHighways in New Zealand are not designed like that probably because of cost.
@ The Professor
Posted on 18-11-2022 07:55 | By Yadick
You're right. The speeds of 70 - 80kmh where it's a constant is, as morepork states, very hypnotic. That drone coupled with drawing a journey out to a stage where it's monotonous for no good reason is enough to put anyone to sleep. We've been there and done it and this guy has no knowledge of why he fell asleep. Obviously he would have drink/drug tested as a part of the investigation but perhaps he should be ordered a sleep study as well or perhaps his journey had become monotonous and the wheel drone took it's toll. I really feel for both sides involved in this tragedy.
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