A Taranaki woman who has admitted causing a crash that resulted in the death of a women was on her learner's licence and driving an unwarranted car at the time. Whakatutu told police she had been travelling between 100kmh and 115kmh, in a 100kmh zone, when she lost control, she knew her car didn’t have a Warrant of Fitness and had bald tyres. An inspection of Whakatutu’s car found it had two bald tyres and a third having exposed wires. She was also in breach of the conditions of her learner’s licence which she had previously received five tickets for since May 2016. https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/124080053/woman-who-caused-fatal-taranaki-crash-was-driving-unwarranted-car-on-learners-licence
nice_lady,
Jan 29, 6:51am
Winz will be buying her a nice new couch shortly so that she can be comfy whilst on home detention.
franc123,
Jan 29, 7:17am
Needs jail on a manslaughter charge but no doubt the bus ticket is being dampened already.
2sheddies,
Jan 29, 9:18am
Just shows the graduated licence system is nothing more than a bloody farce. She had 5 tickets issued for driving on a learners, yet was still flouting it. All it's designed to do is rake in more moolah for the government by forcing those who are responsible to pay three times instead of once. then every 10 years thereafter. It has no bearing whatsoever on road safety or increased driver skills, as proven here. They'll just drive regardless, and the cops can't police everybody all the time.
onl_148,
Jan 29, 9:32am
This lady through her deliberate actions or lack of actions has killed someone, I bet in this PC world nowhere will she be referred to as a murderess ! It will be expressed in a less "serious" sounding way as "operating a motor vehicle causing death".
malcolmc,
Jan 29, 10:06am
That's because murder requires 'intent to kill'. As reckless as she was, there's nothing about this case that suggests she was intent on killing someone. Nothing PC about it - it's just the law.
The law also has things to say about slander - so you should be a bit more careful about what you write on public forums.
budgel,
Jan 29, 10:26am
While I deplore the woman's actions, It's good to see a rational response.
rpvr,
Jan 29, 10:38am
So you would agree with a manslaughter charge then?
unfortunately with people like this, if they had no license they would still be driving anyway. at least with graduated licence it gives them a chance to actually learn something to start with.
tweake,
Jan 29, 10:47am
i would argue that knowing your car has bald tires and it will slide out of control because of that, is the equivalent of intent.
i guarantee that if she was holding a firearm that went off "accidently" and killed a person she would get jail. but in nz using a car to harass and kill people is "just an accident" and at worse a slap on the wrist with a wet ticket.
nice_lady,
Jan 29, 10:53am
. The writer has not stated the lady *should* be referred to as 'a murderess' they have only said that they don't believe she will be so referred to.
malcolmc,
Jan 29, 11:19am
Thanks, I knew there was another relevant word as I was typing it, but just went with what I had in my head. :)
malcolmc,
Jan 29, 11:22am
And I didn't state they had broken any law, I just said to be careful.
socram,
Jan 29, 12:06pm
What is it with people openly flouting the law - regularly? Not scared about the consequences I presume.
Agree. Manslaughter = mandatory jail time. No excuses.
marte,
Jan 29, 12:19pm
The road isn't the place to learn how to drive a car. People should know how to drive before they hit the tarmac. Most people know that driving a car without a WOF is illegal, same with driving with 3 obviously failed tyres, ' out of licensed conditions' ( which pretty much means ' without a drivers license'.
This licensing system we have is a farce.
And ' Murder'? When you buy a lotto ticket, you buy it to win it, even if it's not first prize, but you know that the chances of winning are slim. But people do win.
She, knowning that the car was dangerous, still took the chance. She got top prize in that chance of killing somebody.
s_nz,
Jan 29, 1:25pm
It is extremely unlikely that Whakatutu would have deliberate caused a crash so bad that somebody died, and caused themself to be trapped in the car, only to be pulled from wreck seconds before it caught fire.
Much more likely that the issues with the car & and learners licence were due to financial constraints of poverty. They then made the decision to drive the non road legal vehicle, and in breach of their drivers licence conditions. And subsequently made the decision to travel above the speed limit while passing another vehicle in the wet, on a corner.
It is likely she was unaware what a significant impact bald tires have on a cars handling at speed in the wet, and assumed the car would make it around the corner.
Personally I think the combination of behaviors is more than "careless". And as such a reckless or dangerous driving causing death charge should have been brought. The penalties for the these charges is steep. Potentially 10 years in prison.
But there is no way that loosing control of a vehicle should be equated to intentionally killing somebody, unless that it can be proven that the loss of control for the purpose of killing was intentional. Given the victim was a random stranger this is a non starter.
2sheddies,
Jan 29, 1:33pm
The problem with these people is though, they are incapable of learning. Especially from mistakes.
sr2,
Jan 29, 1:51pm
LOL; the impact of colonialization rears its ugly head again.
Sounds like a "family group conference" is called for!
tweake,
Jan 29, 2:21pm
yet we see it all the time. people who drive dangerously, endanger 100's of people lifes over the years and then they finally get it wrong and someone dies, and its "an accident". walk down the street swinging a baseball bat at people and the cops are usually there pretty quick. but do it with a car is "ok".
s_nz,
Jan 29, 2:53pm
It's not Ok. She was charged and plead guilty in court relating to the offending in a car.
Personally I think "Reckless" or "dangerous" would have been better charges than "careless" though.
alowishes,
Jan 29, 3:42pm
She would have eventually lost her licence for the demerit points she got from the tickets.’ Not that having no licence would have worried her by the sounds of things.
muppet_slayer,
Jan 29, 4:36pm
To the law she is a 'careless' driver causing death, to the public SHE IS A MURDERER she purposely drove an unwarranted unsafe vehicle at speed in the rain, and over taking at 100kmph in the wet, she knew her tyres were bald. She knew the consequences of her actions, just won't admit it for legal reasons. She knew her actions could kill someone. Why do we know all this and we had nothing to do with it. Because it is obvious to us. Why is it not obvious to her.
She should go down for at least 2 years. I see she is going for restorative justice. How do you restore a life?
marte,
Jan 29, 4:42pm
Drink drivers still just get a petty fine only for drink driving.
kazbanz,
Jan 30, 4:16am
I get your point but don't agree that it was MURDER. Murder is a deliberate act with the specific INTENT to kill somebody. But it definitely was manslaughter. No ifs buts or maybes. I struggle to understand how a person that accidently kills a family member with a loaded gun gets jail time for manslaughter yet this person gets off scott free
marte,
Jan 30, 7:26am
Can't figure out how somebody I know can intentionally relatedly stab their partner, who is strapped into the driver's seat of their car, to death, while the cars still moving, and only get charged with manslaughter.
And even then she only got 4 years jail.
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