Crash ‘worst day’ of truck driver’s life

Truck driver John Turner crossed the centreline and with it went three lives.

Failing to see the oncoming Mazda sedan, Turner took the turn into the Graymont Lime quarry, near Te Kuiti, in January 2016.

Amy Katu, 26, Logan Wright, 19, and Tim Grainger, 26, were killed instantly, crushed by the truck.

At a coronial inquest into the crash at Te Kuiti District Court yesterday, parents – still raw from grief – raised questions around the driver’s speed, sobriety and health on the day.

It was a bright, dry summer day when the three turned a corner of Oparure Rd, in the windy King Country hills.

Katu was driving unlicensed, due to a previous suspension, with Grainger in the passenger seat and Wright in the back.

Travelling between 80 and 100kmh, as the Serious Crash Unit contends, they would have seen the truck coming up the rise to the quarry’s entrance.

Turner, 71, had 54 years’ experience and an unblemished record. He crossed the centreline. Katu applied the brakes, but had no time to react.

Witness Desmond Tamaki, spraying weeds at the corner, said he believed the truck was free and clear to corner.

‘‘I saw a flash between the trees and, in the time it took for me to turn my head towards the truck, I heard the screeching of brakes.’’

Turner was staunch in the hearing, saying the car was a ‘‘blur out of the corner of my eye’’.

‘‘It was going bloody fast, I didn’t think it had time to do anything.’’

After the crash, Turner was charged with three counts of careless driving causing death – later dismissed by Judge Kim Saunders in June 2017.

Saunders determined Turner a careful driver, and the shadow of trees may have prevented the Mazda from being seen.

Senior Constable David Tidmarsh, a Serious Crash Unit investigator, told the coroner Turner was travelling too fast before turning.

‘‘He has simply not seen the vehicle.

‘‘The Mazda vehicle would have been visible at some point ahead of him.

‘‘There was some braking from Mr Turner, but not to avoid the incident.’’

Tidmarsh assessed most truck drivers were travelling too fast around a corner prior to turning into the quarry.

‘‘Their speeds were high, too high … all the vehicles I saw were at that speed, on that line.’’

Lynette McDonald, mother of Grainger, said a ten-day delay in police speaking with the witness, Tamaki, allowed for “contamination” of his statement.

Brett Johnson, who spoke at the inquest for the Grainger family, said afterwards the Serious Crash Unit findings could not be ignored.

‘‘I’m not saying [Turner] didn’t look. I’m not saying he didn’t see a car. It had to be there, it’s as simple as that.’’

Michelle Steele, Katu’s mother, had visited the scene of the crash and was disgusted to see quarry drivers still cutting the corner and driving at speed.

Coroner Michael Robb, who reserved his decision, agreed drivers were still approaching the corner with ‘‘some speed’’.

Robb directed a trip to the ‘‘dreadful bit of road’’ mid-hearing.

The trees in question have been removed; the corner now has a turning bay. A traffic island was installed in hopes of preventing drivers cutting into the outbound lane.

Standing at the corner, Wright’s mother Denise Mortensen recounted the moment police called two years ago.

‘‘The first question I asked: ‘Was Amy speeding and did she kill my son?’ ‘‘

‘‘The answer was, ‘No – she had nowhere to go.’’’