Defensive driving course condition imposed

Safe in the South strategy

Safe in the South is launching its 2016-19 Strategy today. Invercargill City Council community development officer Saniya Thompson said Safe in the South was part of an International Safe Community Coalition. The launch will introduce goals and information about past projects. Safe in the South has representatives from the city council, the Southland District Council, police, fire service, Southern District Health Board, iwi, Child, Youth and Family, Emergency Management Southland, ACC and the Southland Chamber of Commerce. The launch is at 10am in the Invercargill Public Library functions room. The man who crashed his $20 million McLaren F1 supercar into a Queenstown ditch was made to complete a defensive driving course as a part of his diversion.

Businessman Barry Leigh Fitzgerald, 63, of Melbourne, Australia, was charged with operating a vehicle carelessly on the Glenorchy-Queenstown road on December 3 last year.

He was remanded without plea so diversion could be considered in the Queenstown District Court on December 5.

Fitzgerald’s lawyer Nic Soper said police considered Fitzgerald’s crash as ’’low level’’ as it was only a brief moment of inattention.

That was why diversion was granted, he said. No financial penalty was imposed. Soper said he could not comment any further.

A police spokeswoman said Fitzgerald received diversion but would not disclose any conditions associated with it.

‘‘I’ve been advised his diversion has been ‘completed’,’’ she said. Asked at what speed the car was travelling before the crash and why police decided diversion was sufficient, the spokeswoman said police had no further comment.

Under the diversion scheme, some offenders who have been charged can be dealt with in an ‘‘out of court’’ way provided they complete agreed conditions, the New Zealand Police website says.

If an offender completes the conditions, the police prosecutor can have the charge withdrawn and a conviction is not recorded, the website says.

The luxury car crashed into a ditch at Closeburn. The vehicle was one of a procession of 31 McLaren cars from across the world travelling from Auckland to Queenstown as part of the carmaker’s Epic New Zealand Road Tour.

Procession stewards reportedly tried to cover up the crash allegedly offering money to media and then trying to stop footage being recorded.

The 1994 McLaren F1 is capable of travelling at speeds of up to 386kmh and was at one stage the world’s fastest production car.