Learner driver ‘destroyed a life’
A driver who killed a man after crashing into a convoy of car enthusiasts was a ‘‘bullet waiting to be fired’’, a court has heard.
Kaikoura man Stewart Windle, 64, died in a four-car collision north of Dunedin on June 3.
Warrick Taylor, the 23-year-old learner driver who admitted causing the crash, appeared before Judge Kevin Phillips in the Dunedin District Court yesterday.
Judge Phillips said Taylor’s actions ‘‘destroyed a life and lives of other people who were both there when Mr Windle died, and people who were part of his family’’.
‘‘You were an accident waiting to happen,’’ he told Taylor.
Windle died as a result of Taylor’s ‘‘gross negligence’’.
At his last appearance, he pleaded guilty to five charges of careless driving causing injury and one of careless driving causing death.
Taylor was sentenced to jail for five months, ordered to pay several thousand dollars in reparations and disqualified from driving for three years.
Earlier, the court heard from the family and friends of Windle, including his widow, Glynis, who was in the crash.
The couple, who were building their dream home in Christchurch, were about to celebrate their 42nd wedding anniversary.
Glynis Windle said she was still suffering from the impact of the crash.
‘‘I have lost my husband and friend,’’ she said. ‘‘I want the pain and the loneliness to go away.’’
She was angry over losing her husband. ‘‘I have to continue my life with a heavy heart.’’
His hot rod, a 1937 Ford Cabriolet nicknamed Piglet, was her husband’s pride of joy.
The couple’s daughter, Janelle McIntosh, said Taylor ‘‘murdered’’ her father by choosing to drive an unregistered and unwarranted car while under the influence of drugs. Windle’s other daughter, Cherie Carr, said ‘‘our close-knit family has been torn apart’’.
Taylor’s selfish actions had robbed the family of a loved husband, father, grandfather and friend. ‘‘You were a bullet waiting to be fired,’’ Carr said. ‘‘Dad got a death sentence and we got a life sentence.’’
Taylor’s lawyer, Andrew Dawson, said he had struggled with the effect of the crash, was remorseful and had apologised to the family at a restorative justice conference.
Four people in the other hot rods were injured, along with Taylor.
Taylor told police he ‘‘looked down, then looked up and ‘boom’ the crash happened’’.