Fatal crash driver avoids conviction
The family of Vernon Leslie Eade, a beloved husband and father from Cheviot in North Canterbury who died in a road crash, say he would not have wanted the driver of the other car to be punished.
Eade, 78, was killed on the Parnassus Rd section of State Highway 1, north of Cheviot, on July 4. His wife, Ann Eade, was seriously injured.
The crash happened when the driver of the other car, Thorsten Rehling, 48, crossed the centre line and collided with the Eades’ vehicle. Eade died at the scene, while his wife suffered multiple broken ribs, a broken sternum, and cuts and bruises to her head.
Rehling was charged with careless driving causing death and careless driving causing injury after the crash. He appeared in the Christchurch District Court yesterday to be sentenced.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Quentin Hix said that although it was human nature to want clarity around why things happened, this was a case where the exact cause of the crash was unknown.
Rehling did not drink alcohol the night before the crash, and had had a good night’s rest, the judge said. He had spread a trip from Nelson to Christchurch over two days, and there was no indication that he was distracted by a cellphone just before the crash.
There could have been a momentary loss of concentration or a momentary distraction by something outside the car, but it was impossible to be certain, the judge said.
By all indications, Rehling’s degree of carelessness was at the lower end of the spectrum, he said.
Judge Hix said the consequences of a conviction would be out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending, before granting Rehling a discharge without conviction.
He ordered Rehling to pay $55,000 reparation to Eade’s family, and disqualified him from driving for a year.
Outside court, the Eades’ son, Dave Eade, said the family were relieved at the court’s decision and had fully supported Rehling’s application to be discharged without conviction.
Eade said Rehling was ‘‘a good man’’ who was very involved in the community, and did not deserve to be punished for something that was truly an accident.
He said the two families’ paths had crossed in a very unfortunate way, but they were supportive of each other. Both families would always have to carry the burden of what happened to them.
Eade said his father would not have wanted Rehling to be convicted. ‘‘[Rehling] is a really interesting man who does good work in his community. Dad would have loved to have met him.’’