Family’s road crash hell

Daniel Bishop was speeding and had, apparently, switched off the lights of his car when he slammed into the rear of a family returning home from a grocery shopping expedition in Hamilton.

Such was the force of the impact that the entire boot area of the car he rammed into was shunted in. Among the five injured passengers inside was a 14-day-old baby and his 22-month old brother.

The older boy suffered catastrophic injuries including a cracked skull and bleeding on the brain. He has been permanently brain damaged, but to what extent is yet to be determined.

At the time of the crash Bishop remained ignorant of the devastation he had wreaked. That’s because, as another motorist who was following the two cars pulled up and ran to help the stricken family, Bishop hopped into her car and sped off.

Seven months of home detention was the sentence for Daniel John Bishop, 30, of Whitianga, when he appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Monday on five charges of dangerous driving causing injury, and one each of failing to stop after an accident to ascertain injury, and unlawfully taking a motor vehicle.

The crash that led to the charges happened at 10.05pm on March 2, on Gordonton Rd, on the outskirts of Hamilton. Both cars were travelling north.

Minutes before the collision Bishop had been on the phone to the police. During his ‘‘quite irrational’’ conversation, he claimed his daughter had been kidnapped and declared he had issues with gangs and shootings. Police were dispatched to

Bishop’s home later that evening and it was while they were there that he turned up, still behind the wheel of the stolen car.

Judge Glen Marshall told Bishop that he had given much consideration to sending him to jail.

However, he pulled back from that punishment because the police and prosecutors had been unable to prove drug or alcohol use.

Bishop had provided the court with a letter from his GP stating he was on medication for mild depression and possible side effects were confusion, hallucinations and agitation.

A psychiatrist’s report had determined Bishop suffered from no mental disorders or diseases of the mind.

Methamphetamine use could explain his behaviour, however he had claimed not to use such substances. The medication combined with insomnia could have affected Bishop, the psychiatrist had concluded.

‘‘There is no adequate explanation for your bad behaviour,’’ said the judge.

Judge Marshall also ordered Bishop to pay $5000 in emotional harm reparation, and a further $3120 in reparation to his victims to cover insurance and other costs. He was disqualified from driving for five years, and ordered to undertake 250 hours of community work.

Bishop will see out his home detention sentence in the seaside community of Hahei.

After the sentencing Noeleen Shead, the mother of the two boys, told the reparation would be ‘‘a drop in the bucket’’ of what his offending had cost her, which was at least $50,000.

The moment before their car was struck she had been checking on the two youngsters and had seen no headlights behind them. As she recounted in her victim statement, she still suffered from nightmares and broken sleep.

‘‘The impact of that night will be with me every day.’’

She and the children’s father, Rory Healion, had since broken up as a direct result of the emotional and financial stresses they had experienced in the aftermath of the crash.

Their 22-month-old son had been taken to Starship Hospital in Auckland, while the younger child remained in Waikato Hospital. His recovery had seemed on track, but for some reason he stopped breathing for a time, necessitating a longer stay in hospital.

The older boy was placed in an induced coma for a time and, in spite of suffering injuries himself, Healion had stayed by his side for six and a half weeks. His financial losses were at least $27,000.

‘‘I have felt every emotion there is, but none of the good ones,’’ he said.