Mr Curnow died at the scene and wife Irene Curnow, who was a front seat passenger, had to be taken to hospital with extensive bruising and a fractured sternum.
The driver of the second car suffered a burn from the airbag, a cut forehead and bruising while her 11-year-old son had a cut forehead which required stitches.
The summary of facts stated Tregidga told the police she did not remember the crash and may have "nodded off".
Mr Curnow's daughter Jen Curnow-Trotter said her father was a former bus driver and loved to drive. "The road was his best friend and driving was his passion. Ironically, the same things that took his life tragically," she said.
"He drove so much that he knew every blade of grass on every corner the entire breadth and width of the North Island. As a result of this, and his concern for our safety on the roads, we were constantly educated in potential and existing dangerous road situations and conditions."
During school holidays Mr Curnow would often offer to take the grandchildren out for a game of mini golf and end up also taking them for a two to three-hour scenic drive up the Coromandel, she said.
"Time was irrelevant when Dad was driving. Any opportunity to get out on the open road and Dad was a happy man.
"He was our go-to man for airport pickups."
Mr Curnow was born in Cornwall and was in the Royal Air Force and the Merchant Navy before moving to New Zealand where he got a job driving trucks in Wellington.
He met his future wife Irene in Wellington in 1964 while she was in the airforce and the pair were married the next year.
Mr Curnow went on to be a driver for Railway Road Services, Intercity and Bethlehem Coachlines.
"He was one of the best drivers out," she said. Mrs Curnow said her husband was also a "wonderful father" to their five children.
"The kids loved him. The moko adored him. We were all devastated when Dad was taken how he was."
Despite the pain of losing him, Mrs Curnow said she did not want to see Tregidga sent to prison.
"I feel for her in my heart. Peter would just forgive and I do too I think. I just don't want her to live a life that it's going to be so hard on her family.
"I'm not going to excuse her for what she did because we lost a wonderful man," she said. "I'd hate her to go to jail. I don't think she should go to jail ..."