Tourist swerved to avoid crash

[The truck driver took] necessary action to avoid a head-on collision.

A Chinese tourist who ventured on to the wrong side of the road killed her friend after swerving to avoid an oncoming concrete truck, a coroner has found.

Coroner David Crerar released his findings into the December 3 crash which killed Ma Lijun, 23, from Shanghai, which happened amid a spate of serious South Island crashes involving foreign drivers.

The driver, Zheng Nana, was disqualified from driving for two years after pleading guilty to charges relating to Lijun’s death and the serious injuries to two other passengers, also from China.

In his findings, Crerar said Nana, who had been studying in Australia for six years and was on holiday in New Zealand with her friends, failed to control the rental car as she drove west on State Highway 73, about 7km south east of Kumara on the West Coast.

Nana first crossed the centre line and drove on to the wrong side of the road. An oncoming concrete truck swerved to avoid a collision, crossing into the other lane.

‘‘At the same instant, Zheng Nana has swerved [further] to the right causing the vehicle she was driving to go off the side of the road. It travelled through bush and scrub at the roadside and into a creek, where it has come to rest against a culvert.’’

Crerar said there was no evidence to pin any fault on the truck driver, who took ‘‘necessary action to avoid a head-on collision’’.

A dashboard sticker advising the rental car driver to stick left had been removed prior to Nana driving the vehicle.

Crerar said although Nana would have driven on the right in China, it was unclear whether it contributed to the crash because she had spent several years in Australia

Lijun and Nana were wearing seatbelts, while the two seriously injured passengers in the back were not.