Woman possibly mistook accelerator for brake pedal
An elderly driver may have had a medical event before she crashed into a van at roadworks near Hokitika. Or she could have hit the wrong foot pedal.
Shirley Ryan, 81, died after driving through a red light and hitting a van and road worker on State Highway 6, just north of the West Coast town on February 17, 2021.
In findings released yesterday, Coroner Megan Armistead said Ryan and her niece had planned to have lunch together that day.
When her niece came out of the house, she noticed her aunt was in the passenger seat.
“She walked over and exclaimed ‘Oh am I driving now?’ Mrs Ryan said something along the lines of ‘Oh, oh, no’ laughed, got out of the car, and moved into the driver’s seat,” the coroner’s report states.
On the return journey from the lunch, Ryan approached the roadworks but did not slow down below 70kph.
“It appeared as if [Ryan] could not see anything in front of them. [Ryan’s niece] asked her aunt to slow down. Mrs Ryan turned to her niece and said, “I can’t,” the report says.
The car kept accelerating along the shoulder and hit the temporary 30kph road sign.
The car clipped the ankle of a road worker holding a stop sign, sending him to the ground, and then crashed into an oncoming van.
The car spun and came to a stop after hitting the side of a stationary road roller in a lay-by. Ryan died at the scene.
Police’s crash investigation unit found nothing relating to the road or its layout contributed to the crash. An inspector found Ryan’s brakes were in good working order, but she was not braking at the time of impact.
A senior constable from the investigation unit speculated Ryan mistakenly put her foot on the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. However, the coroner concluded she could not determine the cause of the crash.
“Given the unusual circumstances of the crash, there is a possibility that Mrs Ryan suffered a temporary physical or mental impairment that rendered her unable to fully control her vehicle as necessary,” she said.