Angela Fay Spyve was sentenced to six months’ community detention in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday on one charge of impaired driving causing death by Judge Raoul Neave.
According to the summary of facts, the victim, Jeffrey Robert Ilott, arrived at the Bush Inn Centre about 1.30pm on June 17, 2021.
Ilott, a 57-year-old maintenance worker, had been asked to carry out maintenance jobs around the property at the request of the mall manager.
Ilott parked his vehicle to the rear of the centre on the eastern side before speaking with the mall manager at the Bush Inn Centre office.
At 2.25pm Spyve arrived at the mall and parked in the underground carpark to the south-eastern area of the mall. Both Spyve and her friend entered the mall to complete various purchases from within the mall.
About 2.40pm Ilott was clearing out a drain in a service laneway on the eastern side of the Bush Inn Centre. He was wearing a yellow hi-vis top while on his hands and knees cleaning out the guttering with the use of a hammer and bucket.
He had no safety barriers or traffic management set up to alert drivers to his presence. At this time Spyve and her friend returned to her car. They were in a rush to collect their children from school.
Spyve exited one of the eastern exits of the underground carpark, turning right on to the laneway to travel in a southerly direction. At this point, Spyve ran over Ilott, trapping him under her car.
Spyve, who had not noticed his presence in the laneway, could not understand why her vehicle was now stationary and seemingly stuck.
She tried to move the car by accelerating and reversing before getting out and seeing Ilott under the car.
The pair got out of the car and emergency services were contacted. On arrival, they got Ilott from under the vehicle. He was showing no signs of life and was pronounced dead at 3.06pm.
Spyve’s car was seized, and she requested personal items from her car prior to it being removed to a secure location.
Police began removing items, during which they found evidence of offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
She was then asked to undergo a Compulsory Impairment Test at the Christchurch Central Police Station.
She failed parts of the impairment test and she had a blood sample taken. The sample showed methamphetamine and cannabis in her system at the time of the crash.
Spyve told police she had a methamphetamine addiction from a previous “toxic” relationship. She also acknowledged smoking methamphetamine the morning of the accident.
Ilott’s sister, Sandra Coffey, read out a victim impact statement to the court.
“Jeff is consistently in our thoughts and prayers from the moment we wake till we lay our heads at night.”
His death had a “major impact” on his parents, Sid and Ruth.
“No parent should have to bury a child. Their grief has not left their faces. They have lost their spark in life and twinkle in their eyes. It breaks our hearts to see our parents suffer in this way at this late stage in their lives.”
Ilott’s mother could not say his name without tears running down her face, and his father had lost his best friend.
“To hear Dad breaking down crying in the bathroom often when he is on his own, not realising we can hear him, is just the saddest thing,” Coffey said.
“They wish it was them that was taken that day, not Jeff, who had so much of his life left to live.”
Ilott was always there for his siblings, who struggled to comprehend he was dead.
His friends and fishing club “family” described him as a “gentle giant with a heart of gold”.
Spyve’s lawyer, Kerry Cook, said she wanted to publicly apologise for the “needless death of a beloved family member”.
He said what happened was “unusual”, with a combination of causative factors, a number of which were out of her control.
She had no previous convictions, and there had been a number of serious and traumatic events that had befallen her.
“That doesn’t justify or excuse the offending, but it provides a direct nexus or explanation for the behaviour.”
He said it was a “very unique set of circumstances”.
Judge Neave agreed and said he had “never seen anything like it”.
Cook said the stigma of a conviction being entered carried with it a “serious condemnation” of Spyve’s actions.
“Her record will reflect that she is responsible for a death and that the death occurred while she was using a Class A controlled drug. No-one seeing that will draw the causative distinctions that the court will draw in this case, they will simply conclude that she was a drug user that killed someone because of her drug use. That is a very heavy burden to bear and in my submission the court should take that into account in assessing all the penalties.”
Crown prosecutor Courtney Martyn said it was accepted Spyve’s remorse was genuine, and that she was someone who had otherwise lived a “very pro-social life”.
Judge Neave said what happened was a “terrible, disastrous outcome”.
He said there was no suggestion or evidence that the presence of the drugs were directly causative of the crash.
He also said there was no suggestion that Ilott had contributed to his own death.
There were a number of relevant factors noted in police’s investigation into the crash, including the drain being situated in the centre of the laneway and that the work area was not cordoned off, with no warning signs in place.
The side wall of the base of the carpark also obstructed Spyve’s view when exiting onto the laneway.
Spyve may have been distracted by a dog running along the edge of the laneway, and her vision was obstructed by her vehicle as she turned.
“Essentially there was a blindspot that would’ve been present while she was completing the turn.”
Speed was not a factor, the summary of facts stated.
“Suffice to say there are a number of causes completely outside the defendant’s control which contributed to this accident, as well as whatever factors that she brought to bear exist,” Judge Neave said.
“There is no evidence to suggest that there was any act of carelessness or negligence or worse on her part which contributed to the accident. Whilst she had the prohibited substances in her blood, there is absolutely no suggestion that they in some way impaired her judgment or had some causative role to play.”
He said “at best” the case involved “a moment’s inattention” in relation to an obstacle that anybody could have missed.
Spyve had no previous convictions and was “highly unlikely” to ever come back to court.
She had commenced taking steps to deal with her methamphetamine use and was now in a much more stable relationship and environment.
She was convicted and sentenced to six months' community detention with 12 months' supervision. She was also ordered to pay $3000 to Ilott’s parents and was disqualified from driving for six months.
