Crash victim a post-quake battler
A woman who died in a car crash in Christchurch became the face of postquake elder abuse during her lengthy insurance battle.
Eileen Margaret Pearce, 86, died in a car crash on Queen Elizabeth II Dr on Monday. She was initially trapped in her car after crossing the centre line and colliding with an oncoming van.
She died at the scene.
Police said it was thought Pearce suffered a ‘‘medical event’’ before the crash.
A pensioner, Pearce spent the later years of her life fighting for Tower Insurance to rebuild her New Brighton home of 30 years.
The company offered to repair it, but Pearce wanted her insurance policy honoured.
‘‘I didn’t insure myself for a band aid,’’ she said three years into her battle.
Insurance advocates called her case ‘‘elder abuse’’.
It inspired a protest outside Tower’s offices in 2014.
Though she settled in 2015, Pearce was disappointed not to get the chance to tell a judge what Tower had put her through.
‘‘I never lived a day further than my day in court,’’ she said at the time.
The nearly five-year fight left her tired and worn out.
She said she hated the person the dispute made her – someone filled with anger and unable to stay calm, she said.
‘‘I don’t like what I’m doing, but I don’t like how I’m being treated,’’ she said in 2014.
"I don't like what I'm doing, butI don't like how I'm being treated." Crash victim Eileen Pearce