Killer driver gets community work
Nicki Braniff got a text from her son Jayden at 6.20pm telling her he had fed the dog and he was going out.
Little did she know, within an hour Jayden would be killed in a sudden impact car crash on the outskirts of Hamilton.
Later that evening, she saw the police had blocked off the road leading to the intersection of Gordonton and Thomas roads, never suspecting that beyond her son was being extracted from the wreck of the car he had been a front seat passenger in.
Her horror of reading about the crash in news reports online, and later being informed that her son was involved was revealed in a Hamilton District Court courtroom yesterday afternoon.
Nearby, 19-year-old Andrew John De Baugh, of Gordonton sat almost doubled over and dabbed at his eyes as he learned his fate for causing the death of his mate Jayden Braniff.
Out of concern for De Baugh’s apparent fragile state, community magistrate Ngaire Mascelle had granted him leave to be excused from standing in the defendants’ dock while his sentencing on a charge of careless driving causing death and three counts of careless driving causing injury took place.
He had been the driver of a car that had turned into the path of oncoming traffic at a notorious Hamilton intersection, fatally injuring Braniff, 23, who was sitting in the front passenger seat – in the ensuing crash. His younger sister Cheri and two other friends were in the back seat and suffered a variety of injuries including fractured hips, broken teeth and a partially collapsed lung.
De Baugh told the police he had only seen another set of headlights bearing down on him at the last instant before the moment of impact.
It was an impact that happened at 7.20pm on July 20 last year. De Baugh’s BMW had been heading south on Gordonton Rd. He slowed and indicated he was turning in to Thomas Rd. However as he did so he pulled into the path of a Honda CRV that was travelling north.
The resulting impact spun the BMW into another car waiting to turn out of Thomas Rd, which hit it. Braniff suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene. The driver of the other car and the passengers in De Baugh’s vehicle were taken to Waikato Hospital, as was De Baugh himself, who was treated for shock.
The trauma of that day was still with him more than six months later, his lawyer Thomas
Sutcliffe told the court, which included a public gallery packed with family and supporters of both De Baugh and his victims.
‘‘This defendant has been struggling to deal with the enormity of his actions that resulted in the death of his friend,’’ Sutcliffe said.
The ‘‘quiet, respectful and decent young man’’ had been under immense emotional stress and had been having difficulty sleeping, which had kept him from returning to work until only recently.
‘‘He has had difficulty facing the world ... he goes to work, he comes home. He has been suffering from depression.
‘‘He is desperately sorry for what has occurred. If he could take the moment back, he would.’’
But as the court heard, De Baugh was not the only one who was suffering. Victim impact statements were read out by Braniff’s sister Katie, mother Nicki and father Steve in which they recounted their anguish at hearing the news of his death.
‘‘From that moment all I felt was constant pain,’’ Katie said. Steve Braniff spoke of ‘‘anger and pain that I never imagined possible ... a nightmare that I cannot wake up from’’.
Nicki Braniff addressed De Baugh directly: ‘‘I know you must live with the decision you made that night. But so do we.’’
De Baugh was sentenced to 160 hours of community work and disqualified from driving for nine months. Mascelle also ordered him to pay $2809.33 in reparation to Braniff’s family and $5000 in emotional harm reparation to them.
The Hamilton City Council fast-tracked discussions on safety improvements there – including the installation of traffic lights – in the days after the fatal crash.