The parents of a woman who died after her fiance rolled his vehicle in North Taieri floods say they have no animosity towards the man.
They were not seeking 35-year-old Garry Stephen Harvey be jailed, the Dunedin District Court heard yesterday.
And Judge David Robinson obliged, sentencing the man to seven months’ home detention.
Harvey previously pleaded guilty to reckless driving causing the death of 29-year-old Sarah Jane Shirley.
The pair were at home on July 12 last year when they heard from a friend who had driven through three fords during the heavy rainfall.
Harvey had recently bought a 4WD and was keen to test the new truck, so the three headed south from Dunedin.
As the weather conditions deteriorated, Fulton Hogan staff closed several roads in the district.
There were signs up at Silver Stream Rd but the defendant approached the ford.
It was raining and dark and the visibility would have been poor, a summary of facts said.
Harvey expressed some concern about the volume of water — later measured in the area at 40 cubic metres per second — but his friend, who was drinking RTDs on the journey, reassured him.
The man got out and removed a branch from the path of the road.
Before attempting the pass, only the two men removed their seatbelts and opened their windows.
Harvey put the vehicle into 4WD mode and set off.
The force of the water shunted the vehicle sideways before it rolled several times, coming to a rest on its roof 20m downstream.
Harvey later described being momentarily pinned under the steering wheel before a small shift allowed him to free himself.
He scrambled to a bank and hauled his mate out of the powerful rapids.
They then realised Ms Shirley was trapped but they could not get back to the vehicle.
Her body was eventually recovered by search and rescue personnel.
In a statement read in court, the victim’s parents described "still waiting for her to walk through the door".
"As we have discovered, life is precious and too short to waste ... All our lives have altered," they said.
Counsel Steve Turner said his client’s remorse was "profound" and Judge Robinson praised him for attending a meeting with the people who had been hit hardest by his crime.
Less than a month after the crash, Harvey, wracked with grief, went to the home of his friend who had accompanied him on the night of the tragedy.
He caused damage to the man’s door as he lashed out.
The victim told police Harvey locked eyes with him with a "look of pure hate and anger".
The defendant admitted charges of burglary and intimidation in relation to the incident.
As well as home detention, Judge Robinson sentenced him to 150 hours’ community work and banned him from driving for a year.
Court reporter
