Inexperience, inattention, and misbehaviour by a passenger meant a driver was not wholly to blame for a crash that left his friend dead and two others injured, a judge said today.
Samuel Lyndon Midgley, 18-year-old Christchurch Polytechnic student, pleaded guilty in Christchurch District Court to careless driving causing death of Phillip Joshua Pullin, and two charges of careless driving causing injury.
Mr Pullin was killed, another man spent two weeks in hospital, and the other passenger got a broken ankle in the crash in Brougham Street, Christchurch, in August last year.
Defence counsel Tony Garrett said all the people in the car were of good character, but made a serious mistake.
Midgley's inexperience, carelessness, and foolhardy manoeuvre made the car fishtail and crash into the only traffic sign cemented into the ground.
Judge Stephen Erber said Midgley was driving his mother's car, it was not a boy-racer case. There was no alcohol involved, and no showing off.
The judge said it was clear that Midgley was distracted and agitated by the three passengers, who were exuberant, making a lot of noise, with one twiddling the dials on the dashboard.
He said Midgley was fortunate that Mr Pullin's parents had spoken so generously, but that he would carry the results of the accident through his life.
He sentenced him to 300 hours of community work, and disqualified him for driving for two years.
He ordered reparation payments for emotional harm for the Pullin family of $3000, as well as $500 to the man who spent time in hospital, and $400 for the man who got a broken ankle.
NZPA