Jail time for fatal high-speed race
A man with a long history of driving offences has been sent to jail for his role in a highspeed race that killed his cousin and a family friend.
Ricky Nicholl was sentenced to a 29 month jail term, in the Christchurch District Court yesterday, on two counts of dangerous driving that caused the deaths. He will also serve two months cumulatively for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
As he left the dock, his wife and family members broke down, as his lawyer had pushed for home detention.
Nicholl was racing his cousin Shanan Nicholl, who was driving a Subaru WRX on September 25, 2021, when the Subaru collided with a ute on Halswell Junction Rd, near the intersection with Shands Rd in Hornby, shortly after 7.30pm. Mark Nicholl Jr, 30, and William John Clark, 29, were killed in the crash, while Jayden Nicholl was seriously injured. Mark and Jayden’s brother, Shanan, suffered a serious head trauma.
Nicholl was on a suspended licence at the time of the crash. The court heard his employee Matthew Gibbons was initially driving the Jeep but they switched seats at traffic lights not long before the crash. Instead of stopping to check on those in the Subaru, Nicholl drove a short distance down the road and switched seats with Gibbons at a petrol station.
Shanan Nicoll was initially charged with two counts of dangerous driving causing the deaths, and one count of dangerous driving causing injury but was discharged because he was considered unfit to stand trial because of his brain injury.
Before Judge Gerard Lynch, crown solicitor Deidre Elsmore argued Nicoll had shown little remorse and said in the days after the accident he attempted to lay the blame on Gibbons, 19, by using a “considerable power imbalance”. “He tried to apply pressure on Gibbons to take full responsibility for the accident.”
She said while on bail, not long after the crash, Nicholl was charged with another driving offence on his motorbike, after he sustained a loss of traction. Elsmore also pointed to the fact that around two months after the crash Nicholl told a constable to “check the cameras” and said he “wasn’t even driving”.
Judge Lynch discounted the starting sentence of four years by 12.5% for a guilty plea, 10% for remorse, 10% for mental health factors, 3% for his prospects of rehabilitation and 7.5% for the impact incarceration would have on Nicholl’s children. He added 5% to his sentence for previous driving convictions, and sentenced him to 29 months in jail.