Driver’s fatal mistake

Three days after James Wynter Hunter made a split-second decision to speed up to try to avoid a van on a dark, rainy evening, his wife died in hospital after being critically injured when the two vehicles collided.

Hunter and wife Jane were travelling back from Napier along River Rd on April 22 this year, according to a police summary of facts. The couple were in conversation as they approached an intersection that led to Pourerere Rd, where they had to give way to oncoming traffic.

Another driver, his partner and three children were travelling west on Pourerere Rd, towards Waipawa, in a Toyota van.

Hunter failed to give way, and his wife alerted him to the approaching van, which had begun to slow down.

Instead of braking, thinking that it would cause him to hit the van, Hunter made a ‘‘split-second decision’’ to accelerate. His Audi and the van collided.

The force of the impact pushed Hunter’s car off the road and through a fence. It rolled and landed on its roof, trapping Jane.

Other motorists assisted in getting her out of the car but she suffered critical injuries and died three days later in Hawke’s Bay Hospital.

The other driver suffered spinal injuries, needing surgery.

Hunter appeared in Hastings District Court yesterday, where he admitted to two charges of careless operation of a vehicle.

His lawyer, Eric Forster, said Hunter had been ‘‘very proactive’’ in talking to police as well as insurers.

When it came to the option of restorative justice, Forster replied that he didn’t know if there was an ‘‘opposite word to ‘veto’, and if [the victims] want it, they should have it’’.

Jane Hunter and her husband farmed the 600-hectare Rangitoto farm on Blackhead Rd.