Date night disaster as car plunges 14m
A couple’s date night turned to disaster after a kiss resulted in their car plunging 14 metres from a car park building, a court has heard.
Simon Hartnoll drove his car off the fifth floor of the Newmarket Tournament car park in York St, seriously injuring his female passenger.
Hartnoll, who was also seriously injured in the incident, was charged with careless driving causing injury in January.
He appeared in the Auckland District Court on Monday for the first day of a two day trial before Judge Christopher Field.
In March, 2016 Simon Hartnoll, who was 39 at the time, and his girlfriend, who was 30, were set to go bowling in Newmarket after eating dinner near Westhaven Drive, the court heard.
Serious crash unit crash analyst constable Gareth Davies read out a statement given by Hartnoll in June 2016.
Hartnoll and his date made their way up to level five before he realised it was the wrong floor.
He had made a deal with his date that if he was wrong she would get a shoulder massage.
The pair parked up and Hartnoll put the handbrake on. They unbuckled their seatbelts and Hartnoll gave his date a shoulder massage followed by a kiss.
Hartnoll moved in his seat and put his foot down on the accelerator causing the vehicle to drive forward through a barrier.
‘‘Failing to put the gear box in park is the primary factor of this crash,’’ Davies said.
The Holden Callais knocked over a concrete stopper, burst through a metre-high metal fence and plunged to the ground.
It plummeted 13.9 metres before landing on a hire car parked below.
His date was critically injured and the falling car narrowly missed another two female passengers located in the parked car below.
The female passenger’s statement was read out by the defence counsel.
‘‘Everything is blank from the start of the day until I woke up in hospital,’’ she said.
The woman underwent a head operation, lost vision in her right eye and sense of smell and had multiple fractures throughout her body.
Hartnoll’s injuries included fractured vertebrae in the neck, back and broken ribs.
The trial continues.