Driver jailed for manslaughter

Hours before Emma Bagley was killed in a horrific car crash she had just finished putting up a Christmas tree at her parents’ house.

In the High Court in Invercargill yesterday, Justice David Gendall sentenced Dejay Rawiri Kane, 21, to four years’ and eight months’ jail for manslaughter and two years’ jail for four reckless driving charges, all to be served concurrently.

Bagley’s father, Bruce Duncan, in a victim impact statement, says on December 7, 2018, his family shared a meal of takeaways.

Minutes after Bagley, her husband Leonard and their children left, Duncan and his wife Christine watched emergency vehicles drive past their Invercargill house.

Kane, a disqualified driver, was driving at speeds of up to 121kmh on a residential street, when he went through a give-way sign and T-boned the Bagleys’ car.

Emma underwent several hours of surgery but died as a result of her injuries.

Her husband, Leonard survived the crash but he was flown to Christchurch Hospital and put into an induced coma.

He was present in court yesterday. Their children, who were in car seats received minor to moderate injuries in the crash.

By midday on December 8, Duncan had to tell his grandchildren that ‘‘mummy had died’’.

‘‘We will hear their guttural screams until we die.’’

‘‘Emma not being able to guide and nurture her children or reach her potential gives us great pain,’’ Duncan says.

‘‘This could all be different if you [Kane] made different and law-abiding decisions on December 7.’’

Prior to the accident, Kane had been seen driving on the wrong side of the road in Windsor that night.

A member of the public, who was almost sideswiped by Kane’s Subaru on Queens Drive, contacted police and followed him to the Northern Tavern bottle store, where the driver got out, went in and returned carrying alcohol.

Kane’s Subaru was driven at high speed between two cars that were going around the Queens Drive and Herbert St roundabout, the summary says.

The vehicle was seen to fishtail and appeared to lose control.

Justice Gendall says he accepts Kane was genuinely remorseful. ‘‘The prolonged nature of your reckless driving must not be taken lightly. You had been consistently driving in a reckless manner.

‘‘The crash was all-but inevitable,’’ Justice Gendall says.

‘‘You were at two times the legal [blood alcohol] limit.’’

Kane was also disqualified from driving for six years.

Defence lawyer Bill Dawkins says after he visited Kane in prison and read him the Bagley’s family’s victim impact statement, Kane said ‘‘jail was the easy bit, I have to wake up every day with what I have done’’.