The car hit a bridge, and "half the bridge" ended up in the car according to a volunteer firefighter who attended.
Rolleston was taken to Waikato Hospital's Intensive Care Unit where he remained for nearly a month.
Maxwell was also seriously injured in the crash.
Rolleston told Fairfax on the eve of his court appearance he just wanted to be "honest".
"It's a daunting experience, I guess, standing up there and facing the consequences. But I just have to face the music ... I don't want it to seem to anyone that I am hiding."
He believed he was lucky to be alive.
"I was just a young teenage lad who thought he was invincible. And I learned I wasn't. It could happen to anybody," he told Fairfax.
Rolleston, who also starred alongside Cliff Curtis in the movie The Dark Horse, faces a long road to recovery.
He has started physiotherapy, swimming and speech therapy at Auckland's ABI Rehabilitation Centre.
"It's like the muscles in my mouth are lazy, so I can't pronounce the words properly," he told Fairfax.
"I know what I have to say...but it comes out mumbly. A lot of words I mumble. My speech gets worse, I struggle more with it, when I am tired."
But he was sure he would work again. "Acting is still my dream and it will never stop being my dream."
- NZ Herald/Whakatane Beacon