‘Where is the justice?’ Southland husband demands Failed to stop
Where is the justice?
‘‘How can we possibly expect people to change their driving behaviour, when the consequences for killing someone are so light,’’ says Jamie Barton.
Barton is the husband of Nola Jane Paterson-Barton who died in 2019 after a car crash at an intersection near Invercargill.
Speaking outside of court, after Rodney Martin was sentenced to eight months’ home detention, Barton said it would’ve been easier to accept what happened if it had been a genuine mistake.
‘‘Nola’s death was completely avoidable and unnecessary.Mr Martin says he regrets the decision he made that killed my wife, but where is the justice when my family and I serve a life sentence without Nola, while Mr Martin simply gets several months home detention?’’
Barton asked how people would ever change driving behaviours when the consequences were so light.
Martin appeared before Justice Rachel Dunningham for sentencing in the High Court at Invercargill yesterday. He was charged with reckless driving causing the death of Paterson-Barton in November 2019.
Along with the home detention sentence he was also ordered to pay $10,000 emotional harm reparation and
Jamie Barton
$1594.78 to fix a fence at the intersection and disqualified from driving for two years.
Justice Dunningham said Martin was a hard-working man who made a momentary mistake which had tragic consequences.
‘‘Your remorse is genuine,’’ Justice Dunningham said. In her sentencing the justice said given limited financial means, his offer to pay more than $11,500 for emotional harm and to fix the fence was a meaningful way for Martin to display his remorse and wish to make amends.
‘‘Your are someone who will have learnt from this tragic experience.’’
Barton also read a victim impact statement in court, as well as one of his teenage daughters, who told the court grief consumed her. About 6.30am on November 21, 2019, the court was told Martin failed to adhere to a stop sign while driving south on Mill Rd South, and T-boned Paterson-Barton’s car on her driver-side door as she drove west on Oteramika Rd.
The nurse and mother of three was trapped in her car and Martin tried to help her out, but she died at the scene.
Justice Dunningham said Martin accelerated as he approached the intersection and later acknowledged he made the conscious decision not to stop.
There is a sign warning about the stop sign 250 metres from the intersection, then two large ‘‘STOP AHEAD High Crash Site’’ signs, before two stop signs.
Justice Dunningham told the court the car ahead of Martin stopped at the intersection before safely crossing and Martin believed he had time to follow it.
Martin accelerated as he approached the intersection, the justice said.
Crown lawyer Riki Donnelly said Martin knew the intersection and ‘‘must have known’’ it was a high crash zone.
Martin’s knowledge of the intersection aggravated his recklessness, Donnelly said. The fact Martin made no attempt to stop was also an aggravating factor, he said.
Justice Dunningham said the intersection was recognised as a regular crash site.
The ‘stop ahead high crash site’ signs were ‘‘extremely large’’, the justice said.
Martin knew the road as he drove it often, she said.
Defence lawyer Fiona Guy Kidd said Martin was a good man who made a terrible decision in a matter of seconds.
He worked every day on his small farm after a decade in the New Zealand Defence Force, Guy Kidd said.
‘‘That’s part of the background to what happened on this day. For once, he was getting a weekend away and perhaps, as he says, his mind was elsewhere, leading to this tragic decision,’’ Guy Kidd said.
Martin could not serve a home detention sentence at his house because of a lack of signal coverage for electronic monitoring and will serve the sentence at a friend’s house.
Guy Kidd asked for the court’s mercy, to take into account the impact of a home detention sentence on Martin’s family, and asked for a sentence of community detention to allow him to farm.
However, Justice Dunningham said a sentence of community detention would not meet deterrence requirements.
‘‘How can we possibly expect people to change their driving behaviour, when the consequences for killing someone are so light.’’