Pensioner to pay $500 to St John

A 70-year-old Southland man who caused the death of his long-time wife in a car crash has been ordered to donate $500 to St John Ambulance.

Timothy John Houlden was convicted of careless use of a motor vehicle causing the death of his wife of nearly 50 years when he appeared in the Invercargill District Court last week.

Judge Mark Callaghan said no penalty would reflect the loss Houlden and his family had suffered, court documents show.

Houlden would carry the burden of what occurred for the rest of his life, the judge said.

He ordered the Tuatapere man to pay a $500 donation to St John Ambulance and $130 court costs and disqualified him from driving for six months.

A police summary of facts says Houlden and his wife, Helena, were in a SsangYong motor vehicle on the Milton Highway, in an area known as the Paterson passing lanes, on December 7 when the accident occurred at 9.16am.

They were driving towards Dunedin where Helena, the front seat passenger, was due to attend hospital for an appointment later that morning.

As Houlden approached the passing lanes he was third in a line of three vehicles.

The front vehicle pulled into the left hand lane and the two following vehicles, including Houlden’s, began passing in the outside lane.

The road had been recently resealed and the vehicle in the left lane began to slow down because it was getting showered with loose grit.

Houlden, who was following close behind the second vehicle, lost control of his vehicle and it went off the left side of the road and over a bank and into a paddock, rolling several times.

Houlden, who said he could not remember the crash, sustained injuries that required hospitilisation.

His wife was thrown from the vehicle.

To an ‘‘outsider’’ it may appear the loose gravel on the road was a contributing factor, but there was no evidence to say it contributed to the loss of control, the judge said.