A university professor who was found guilty of careless use of a car causing death has been ordered to pay $37,000 to the family of the cyclist she killed, the New Zealand Herald reports.
Wellington associate professor Yvonne van Roy was found guilty in November last year of killing cyclist Benjamin Lawless.
Mr Lawless was biking home around 11pm on January 22 when he was hit at an intersection in suburban Karori.
Van Roy, who said she had not seen Mr Lawless, pleaded not guilty to the charge of careless use of a car causing death. However, she was found guilty after a two-day hearing.
At the hearing, Judge Tom Broadmore was told Mr Lawless had not been wearing reflective clothing and was not wearing a light in an approved way.
The police case said Mr Lawless would have been in the beam of van Roy’s headlights, and she should have been able to see him.
The judge accepted there could have been faults on both sides of the collision.
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