Teenager’s death still haunts drink-driver

Danny Hendriks was lying drunk on a dark country road in Canterbury when he was run over and killed by a drink-driver.

The coroner has ruled Annalese Taylor was not to blame for the death because Hendriks lying on the road was the key cause.

Hendriks’ family are ‘‘mortified’’ by Coroner Gordon Matenga’s ruling, while Taylor says the incident haunts her every day.

It was a Saturday in 2014 when the fates of Taylor, 35, and Hendriks, 18, tragically intersected.

Both had a good night out on April 5. Taylor had a few wines at a barbecue with family, then went to Rakaia’s Railway Tavern with friends. Afterwards, she got in her Toyota to drive home.

Hendriks spent his Saturday drinking with mates on a bus trip as part of a friend’s stag do. They stopped at Fairton for a toilet break, but the apprentice mechanic never got back on the bus.

At 11pm, both were on Acton Rd. Hendriks had hitch-hiked from Fairton to Rakaia. He was walking towards his girlfriend’s house and ended up lying on the road.

Taylor noticed she was slightly over the speed limit and slowed down. She put her lights on high beam and her passenger said, ‘‘what’s that?’’, as they neared something on the road. ‘‘We were right there on it and I thought it was a bag or an animal,’’ she told police. ‘‘I thought it was safer to go over it rather than swerve.’’

The car bounced as it hit Hendriks. Its airbags went off and smoke came from under the bonnet as Taylor’s car came to a halt.

She and one of her passengers, using a phone for a torch, went back to see what they hit. Hendriks was not moving and made no sound. It is a memory that haunts her every day.

Her blood-alcohol level was 96 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit at the time (2014) was 80mg per 100ml. She later pleaded guilty to an excess blood alcohol charge and was sentenced in Ashburton District Court in November 2014.

Testing showed Hendriks had a blood alcohol level of 183mg per 100ml of blood.

In a statement, Taylor said she had many sleepless nights thinking about what she could, or should, have done. She visited the accident site many times, put flowers there and shed many tears.

‘‘She unreservedly apologises to the family for her part in the accident which took away a loved son, brother, grandson and friend,’’ said her lawyer, Allister Davis.

Speaking to media, Hendriks’ aunt, Justine Dann, and grandmother, Gail King, remember a charming prankster who ‘‘made life fun’’. He would fill up a cup with confetti and pretend it was coffee before throwing the contents in another’s direction.

Hendriks lived with his grandparents since age 10 and called them ‘‘Mum’’ and ‘‘Dad’’.

Coroner Matenga said Hendriks was to a large extent the author of his own misfortune. ‘‘That he was [lying on the road], in my view, is the predominant and active cause of the crash, not Ms Taylor’s driving.’’