The mother of a teenager badly hurt by speeding, drunk driver Dean Yaxley is unhappy he has been put behind bars.
Wanda Rudsits, whose 18-year-old son Nigel Fluharty suffered multiple fractures, a damaged spleen and other on-going injuries in the Whangamata crash, said the victims needed Yaxley on home detention so he could still be out working and helping them financially.
"That would be in everybody's best interests."
She said of the 22-year-old Mt Maunganui butcher imprisoned today for a year on three counts of dangerous driving causing injury and one of driving with excess breath alcohol: "I don't feel he is a bad person.
"He is going to be mixing with riff-raff in prison which is not going to do him any good."
Ms Rudsits and her son were due to return to the United States 10 days after the accident, but her son was unable to travel still and faced several more surgical operations.
The delay has cost her a new job in San Francisco which was to have helped fund her son's first year of study in theatre production. Their only income here at the moment is a benefit.
"I will have to get a job," said New Zealand-born Ms Rudsits who spent many years in the US where Nigel, her only child, was born.
They have been in Tauranga for the past three years while he attended Otumoetai College.
Nigel Fluharty, who is still dependent on crutches to get around since the May 3 accident, said his dream career in theatrical lighting had been stalled since Yaxley "literally came crashing into my life".
He hoped in the future to still pursue his ambitions "if my injuries allow me to", but expected to be out of action for at least six months.
The teen agreed with his mother that imprisoning Yaxley and removing his earning power was no help to the victims.
"It was the wrong call. If he's in jail he can't do much, can he?"
Ms Rudsits said she did not feel any malice toward Yaxley, who had "done his bit" to try to make amends.
"I think he lives in his own hell. He made a terrible decision, a bad choice. He has faced up to it."
