Police charge dad of toddler swept away
THE father of a two-year-old girl who was swept away along with the man who tried to save her has been charged over the deaths.
Michael Saunders faces charges of dangerous driving causing the deaths of his daughter Emily and another man, Barry Petrie, 66, who tried in vain to save her.
It is almost a year since Saunders’ June 9 attempt to drive across a swollen West Coast river ended in the deaths of his daughter and Petrie.
Saunders, driving the Isuzu Bighorn with four passengers on board – Sandra Saunders, Emily, Petrie and a possum trapper – were crossing the Poerua River, near Harihari, when the SUV became stuck.
All five got out and tried to get to shore. A passenger carried Emily, but she was swept out of his grip. Petrie, 66, swam after her, but both were swept away.
Searchers found Petrie’s body downstream, on the beach south of the river mouth, the next day.
Emily’s body was never found and the search eventually called off.
The number of fatalities could have been far worse.
Speaking at the time of the accident, Sandra Saunders said she would have drowned in a raging West Coast river without the heroic efforts of a possum hunter who grabbed her from the water.
Michael Saunders swam after his daughter but could not reach her. West Coasters continued to search for her body for a month after she went missing, but to no avail.
Saunders did not want to comment about the charges when contacted on Saturday. But in the aftermath of Emily’s death, he said the family could not believe the ‘‘incredible’’ community response to their tragedy.
Michael and wife Sandra had been working as sharemilkers on Anne and Frank Simpson’s farm, nearby.
This week Anne Simpson said the ordeal was still ‘‘too upsetting’’ for Saunders to speak publicly about.
‘‘It’s pretty hard going for them.’’
Michael Saunders had since quit sharemilking.
‘‘He’s driving trucks, he’s changed his job from dairy farming,’’ said Simpson.
Saunders was due to appear in the Christchurch District Court on Friday, via video link from Greymouth, but the appearance was abandoned.
It was his sixth court date to face the charges.
‘‘They’ve kept putting this damn thing off,’’ said Anne Simpson, whose home Saunders and his wife, Sandra, have stayed at since the double drowning on June 9 last year.
The couple would soon move to Ashburton where Michael Saunders would take up a new job, Simpson said.
‘‘They haven’t given us a date for when the next court [appearance] is.’’
Michael Saunders’ family from the United Kingdom came for a month to help support the couple and their two other daughters. The West Coast Lions Club helped fund their trip.