‘That day my heart broke’
First anniversary of triple fatality crash
Shane Summerfield’s heart broke the day his wife and daughter died.
His ‘‘soul mate’’ Sally, 49, daughter Ella, 12, and Ella’s friend Abigail Hone, also 12, died instantly when Dutch businessman Johannes Appelman ran through a stop sign and crashed his rented stationwagon into the side of their Volvo near Rakaia on May 31, 2014. Summerfield, who was driving the Volvo, survived the crash, but his life was left ‘‘in tatters’’. ‘‘On that day my heart broke,’’ he said.
The 50-year-old returned to work as a dentist only four weeks ago, but had not been able to go back to the Sumner home he once shared with his family. ‘‘My home was a home. It’s just a house now.’’
He and son Sam, 17, were still living with his dad and sister in Fendalton. Sunday marked the first anniversary of the crash, but for Summerfield it still felt ‘‘like yesterday’’.
‘‘We talk about all these stages of grieving. I don’t know what stage I’m at, but I was probably better at the beginning. As time goes by you realise the reality is they’re not going to come back.
‘‘My daughter’s never going to kiss me again. Ella had this habit – she had to kiss me before I went to work, I don’t know why. She’d grab my cheeks and give me a big kiss – that was the ritual.’’
The family had been heading to Ohau for the Queen’s Birthday holiday weekend, where they planned to meet up with Abi Hone’s parents, Lucy and Trevor, who were already there.
Summerfield remembered putting his hand on his wife’s leg, then Johannes Appelman came out of nowhere. ‘‘I didn’t have any chance to react.’’
He woke up in intensive care, where he spent 10 days recovering from broken ribs, a lacerated spleen and kidney and a torn aorta. His physical injuries were nothing compared to the pain of losing his wife and daughter.
‘‘I would wake up thinking I was dreaming Sally and Ella died, then I’d go back to sleep. I was swinging between the two. I would have been happy to die. I’m glad I didn’t die because I’ve got my son and family and friends.’’
Appelman – who had crashed another rental car only hours before killing Ella, Sally and Abi – later pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court to careless driving causing death and was disqualified from driving for 15 months.
He was ordered to pay $25,000 in emotional reparation to Summerfield, and had earlier paid a similar, undisclosed sum to the Hone family.
He attended a private meeting with the Hones and a restorative justice meeting with Summerfield.
‘‘He did say he was sorry. It was more about me telling him how I felt.’’
Summerfield did not find closure in the meeting, or any comfort from the rest of the justice process. ‘‘It’s not going to bring them back.’’
Sally was the ‘‘most beautiful, kind, intelligent woman’’, her husband said. ‘‘It’s going to sound like a list of cliches, but sometimes cliches are true and she was my soul mate.’’
The couple met in London in 1995 and married the following year after English-born Sally proposed.
‘‘She was the driving force behind the family. I was along for the ride. I was more than happy to be along for that ride.’’
The family moved back and forth between England and New Zealand. Both of their children were born in England before the family finally settled in Sumner.
‘‘It’s really quite a unique place. The people are just phenomenal.’’
Twelve-year-old Ella was the ‘‘apple of my eye’’, Summerfield said.
‘‘She was a daddy’s girl and I was so under the thumb. I really didn’t want it any other way.’’
Ella ‘‘loved her friends’’ and kept the Summerfields’ house
full. ‘‘It was like Piccadilly Circus at times.’’
‘‘She brought together people who wouldn’t normally be together, she had that ability and she could make them all feel special.’’
He found it hard to see Ella and Sally’s friends and saw reminders of them everywhere. ‘‘It can hit you at any moment.’’ Ella and Abi were always together.
‘‘Abi was a beautiful girl and she was kind as well.’’
The Summerfields and the Hones knew each other well and had been on holiday together before their planned trip to Ohau last year.
Now they had a ‘‘ common bond’’ that no one else could understand. ‘‘You’ve got this huge void, nothing to fill it.
‘‘All this love you had – there’s nowhere for it to go. It’s just sadness.’’
Summerfield was grateful for the support of his family, friends, work colleagues and the ‘‘incredible’’ Sumner community.
‘‘There’s some amazing people out there, that’s why it’s such a great place to live. Without their support it would have been tougher than it was.
‘‘A friend of mine said ‘stay alive until you learn to live again’. It is like that – I’m alive, but shit yeah, I’m still learning.’’
In a joint statement, Lucy and Trevor Hone said they would miss their daughter Abi ‘‘forever’’.
‘‘Family life will never be the same without her beautiful bouncy vivacious spirit – our home is very quiet.
‘‘We thank all of you who have helped us through the last terrible year, and hope you will continue to share your stories and memories of all three girls with us always.’’
Senior Sergeant Scott Richardson, of the Canterbury road policing team, said a ‘‘momentary lapse’’ in focus could be all it took for such a crash to happen. ‘‘It’s just a waste of three lives.’’ Canterbury police had been targeting drivers who failed to stop at stop signs across the district, issuing 81 fines to drivers in the Waimakariri district in just one week this month.