Jim Hitchcock is your typical Kiwi farming bloke. He was a man who had never been in trouble with the law, until last October, when he drove into a car near Tirau and a 65-year-old man died.
Jim was not speeding. He hadn't been drinking. It was an accident. But he was charged with careless driving causing death and injury.
He accepts that.
But farmers on the site where the accident happened say he is not the only one to blame.
A speed camera van was parked in a lay-by.
The car Jim hit wanted to use the lay-by to turn, but did not because the van was there, stopping in the middle of the road instead, which is where Jim hit it.
The farmers want the speed camera operator charged. But police say he has done nothing wrong.
“I hope I don't cry... But it's been... it's been a killer... the kids that have been hurt... the damage... the person who lost their life. I've stuffed a lot of people up,” Jim says.
Jim Hitchcock is a broken man.
On October 10th last year, he and his wife barb were returning to Rotorua, from Hamilton, driving along state highway one.
The weather was grim, but the mood relaxed. It was about 4.30pm. That is when he was momentarily distracted by a speed camera van on the side of the road.
“On the way to Hamilton we passed a speed camera van on the side of the road. At the accident site and I remember saying to Barb my wife ‘what a boring life a speed camera operator man must have’,” Jim remembers.
Those were his last words to his wife before his world changed forever, and for one man, it ended.
“And a black car stopped. There was a red van next to it. I did half a second shimmy in my brain. Where can I go?” tells Jim.
Jim had no where to go. There was a car stationary in front of him, waiting to turn right. Normally that would have waited in lay-by on the left. But that was occupied by the speed camera.
Jim ended up shunting the black car into an oncoming vehicle. A 65-year-old man was killed. Neighbours say it should never have happened.
“I'm certain it wouldn't have happened if the speed camera wasn't there. Kylie would have pulled off,” says neighbour Longview Farm Manager Bill Macky.
Kylie Roycroft was the driver of the black car. It was her step dad that was killed. Jim went to the rescue of her two young children, trapped in the wreck.
“I held her. You could see she was trying to move. She had a broken leg. I just held her. We bonded. She didn't know who I was, or what I caused,” says Jim.
Three months later, Jim was charged with careless driving causing death and injury.
At his first court hearing he met the driver of the car he hit - Kylie Roycroft.
“She made some comment of I can't believe the police are chasing you. There are a lot of people to blame in this. She was saying I should have gone ahead. The police camera shouldn't have been there,” says Jim.
The farmers at the site of the accident agree. They are adamant the speed camera operator is also to blame.
“I would like to see him go thru the same process that Jim Hitchcock has gone through as being a major contributor to the accident.. Why is Jim being charged? As far as we are concerned this accident would not have happened had he not been there,” says Alex Baldwin.
This is the issue. The speed camera parked here in the lay-by, which is public land. But the lay-by was paid for by the Longview Farm’s trust, which is based across the road. The trust says it is for residents and visitors, so they can pull in here and wait safely before crossing the highway into the farms main entrance.
The trust paid $8000 for the lay-by. Kylie Roycroft always used it. Her partner worked at the farm. But on that fateful day in October, she felt she could not.
“In her mind she came down the road, the lay-by has got the van in. There was no room for me so she pulled to the middle of the road, which was something she normally didn't do, but because the van was there. Did he have any right to be there? No. Has he explained why he was there? No,” says Macky.
The speed camera operator turned up at the site a month after the accident, farmers asked him to leave.
But police say he has every right to be there. It is public land. And have cleared him of any blame, saying there was plenty of room for Kylie Roycroft to pull up.
“The speed camera was parked legally. It was parked appropriately. It had been there two hours prior to the crash. In fact the school bus had parked there without any difficulty. So no I don't accept it's inappropriate,” says Inspector Kevin Taylor of the Bay of Plenty Police.
Another speed camera parked at the site last month, again farmers protested.
Police now say it won't turn up again.
“I have recently issued an instruction not to use that. Not because we can't or shouldn't. But because of the sensitivity to the trust. There is no point using it if it is going to cause problems,” says Taylor.
As for Jim Hitchcock, he has just been sentenced. He was disqualified from driving, fined 1000 dollars and ordered to pay nearly 6000 dollars in reparation to the children. And, most importantly for him, he has made his peace with kylie.
“There is so many people affected. I'm just so sorry for the mess I’ve created. So from my heart I am sorry,” says Jim.