The mother of a man who was killed in a hit-and-run and left on a grass verge overnight after police failed to send an officer out until morning says she’s still waiting for police to acknowledge the pain she went through, and tell her they’re sorry.

At 3am on January 24, 2023, 41-year-old Kerry Phillips was walking on the grass verge of a dark rural road in the small town of Benneydale in the Waitomo District when he was hit by a car.

It was only a few hundred metres away from where his brother Lloyd Phillips died 14 years before, after he was thrown from his car following a crash.

His family - who did not want to be named due to fears of retaliation from the man who hit Kerry - say January 23 had been Lloyd’s birthday, and they believe Kerry may have been walking down the road after visiting the site of his death.

“There’s no Ubers or taxis out in Benneydale, it’s a very remote town, so it’s not unusual to see people walking home after a night out,” Kerry’s mum says speaking surrounded by her family members in the lounge of her Tauranga home.

“Kerry didn’t have an easy life,” she says, her voice catching, “but he was a very hard worker who always helped anyone who needed it. He had a good heart and he loved his family.”

There were issues with the police investigation from the start, his mum says, which led to the family laying a complaint with the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) that Valentine’s Day.

The man who hit Kerry did not stop and instead drove to the house of his mother where he told her he “may have hit a person”. His mum later called 111 to report what happened.

Kerry Phillips was walking on the grass verge of a dark rural road in the small town of Benneydale in the Waitomo District when he was hit by a car. Photo / RNZ / Susan Strongman.

The driver’s mother said her son “didn’t know” if he had hit an animal or a person, and the call taker decided to give the call a priority two rather than a priority one.

A discussion between police officers on duty that night decided not to go to the scene - which would take an hour’s drive - until morning as it could have been an animal and limited officers were available, an IPCA report into the incident found.

It wasn’t until around 8am, when an officer arrived, that Kerry’s body was found lying on the grass verge.

Kerry’s mum had no idea anything had happened to her son until she got home from work that night around 6pm, and received a call from her ex-husband.

“He called me and told me Kerry was dead and our world stood still after that.”

One of the main upsets to the family, Kerry’s granddad says, is that police never called his mum to tell her what had happened.

It had been a “mad panic” after the news was broken, Kerry’s mum says, with her sister trying to get information on where Kerry’s body was being held, what happened to him and who they needed to speak to.

She says that experience has been “harrowing”.

“I struggle with the fact police didn’t let me know themselves - I’m his mother. It was the first of many failings.”

One of Kerry’s aunts says she had to call the mortuary at Waikato Hospital and was able to confirm he was there and an autopsy was being done.

“There was no support offered to us, which if we’d been formally notified we would have been given. It was a battle from the word go.”

She says it's “worrying” for all New Zealanders living in rural areas to know police may not respond due to the time it would take at night.

“Many parts of our country are rural like Benneydale, so for them to decide somewhere is too far away to drive to in an emergency, how safe does that make the rest of New Zealanders feel?”

Kerry’s younger sister says to this day, police have never shown up on their doorstep to give them information.

Police failed to respond appropriately

The IPCA report into the incident was released last week and found the call taker should have given the job a higher priority and police should have sent a car as soon as they got the emergency call.

“That decision was an error in judgment,” the IPCA says.

Their IPCA media release says it's “important to note” the matter is before the coroner.

“It’s a main road with trucks going up and down it all the time, because of the hours that had passed and the fact the driver hadn’t stayed at the scene, a lot of evidence was already gone.”

As a result, the man who hit and killed Kerry was charged with one count of failing to stop and ascertain injury after a crash. He was sentenced to seven months home detention.

Kerry’s family say they still find it hard to believe the driver didn’t know he had hit a person as they had seen pictures of the car and the front was “completely crushed”.

His mum says she can’t stomach looking at the car, but her family members have described the front windscreen as being almost impossible to see out of.

“There’s no way you wouldn’t know with that kind of damage you hit a person,” Kerry’s granddad said.

Kerry had been more than six feet tall, his younger sister says, and would be “hard to miss”.

‘Just say sorry’

In the wake of the IPCA report, police put out a media release in which superintendent Bruce Bird says a review into the incident occurred and they also found the call should have been given higher priority and an officer sent straight away.

“The report notes a pathologist’s advice was that the man would have died instantly, and any medical intervention would not have prevented his death,” Bird says.

“We recognise while responding at the time sadly may not have changed the outcome, it was a shortcoming in our response.” 

The officers involved have been spoken to, Bird says.

Kerry’s mum says she's not happy with the response from police and she wants police to acknowledge her and her side of the family and say sorry to them.

“An apology would’ve been very nice,” Kerry’s granddad says, “but we’re still waiting”.

The experience with police has left Kerry’s mum “feeling empty”, she says, and there are no winners in the situation regardless.

Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Bruce Bird. Photo / Dom Thomas, RNZ.

“I just want the police to be human and treat us with respect and for them to put their hand up and say yes we’re really sorry”.

Kerry’s auntie says her nephew was unable to get the justice he deserved because of the failings identified in the IPCA findings and the family want to know what changes have been made going forward to stop other families having to go through the same trauma.

It's “sad” it has come to making a complaint to the IPCA, Kerry’s mum says.

“Police are meant to look after us and if we didn’t make this complaint nothing would have happened. There’s been no justice for my son - the whole thing seems senseless.”

Questions were put to the police about the lack of apology or in-person contact with the family, but a police spokesperson says they have “nothing to add” to their IPCA media release and says it's “important to note” the matter is before the coroner.

“My understanding is that an in-person apology has been made to family members, although perhaps not to specific family members you have been speaking to.”

- RNZ