Date night a disaster for couple
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 Auckland’s York St, seriously injuring his female passenger.
Hartnoll, who was also seriously hurt, was charged with careless driving causing injury in January.
He appeared in Auckland District Court yesterday for the first day of a two-day trial before Judge Christopher Field.
In March 2016, Hartnoll, who was
39 at the time, and his girlfriend, 30, were going bowl- ing.
Constable Gareth Davies read out a statement given by Hartnoll in June last year.
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 the woman 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.
He moved in his seat and put his foot down on the accelerator, causing the vehicle to drive forward. ‘‘Failing to put the gearbox 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 fell to the ground.
The woman underwent a head operation, lost vision in one eye, her sense of smell and had multiple fractures.