The mother of a cyclist killed by a teen driver who straddled the centre line going up a busy Christchurch hill has forgiven the youngster. Robert Kruger, 18, was on a restricted licence and driving with an unlicensed passenger when he hit 33-year-old cyclist Thomas John Alton at about 6.45pm on February 20.
Police found that although he wasn't speeding, Kruger was going uphill too fast to negotiate a 35km/h blind bend on Parklands Dr in the hillside Huntsbury suburb when he moved into the opposite lane.
English-born Alton had gone just 150m from home and was travelling quickly, pushed further into his lane because of parked cars, Christchurch District Court heard today, when he was struck.
He died in hospital four days later.
Kruger earlier admitted a charge of careless driving causing death.
Today, Judge Jane Farish sentenced him to 200 hours of community work and ordered him to make an emotional harm repayment to the Alton family of $2000.
She also disqualified him from driving for 12 months which will mean he'll need to re-sit his licence.
Adam Alton said his world collapsed when hearing his "adventurous, caring, funny and energetic" elder brother had died.
"It never really finishes sinking in," he said in a victim impact statement.
He wants Kruger to understand what he has done and to do something positive in his life and help other people.
His father, John Alton, spoke of the "huge traumatic shock" in what was an "unintentional but preventable" accident.
Defence counsel Vicki Walsh described events as heartbreaking and a catastrophic "perfect storm" involving millimetres and seconds.
She said Kruger, whose parents were in court today, had accepted responsibility and taken part in a "profoundly moving" and positive restorative justice conference with the Alton family.
He had asked for forgiveness from Alton's mother and she had graciously granted it, Walsh said.
"At 18, he has learned the most profound and tragic lesson of his life, for which he deeply apologises," Walsh said.
Police had ruled out sun-strike but Walsh said it had been a "troubling factor".
At the time of the accident, cars could park at apex of the corner on Parklands Dr, Walsh said, but since then the city council had painted yellow lines to prevent cars from parking there.
In sentencing Kruger, Judge Farish ruled out adding supervision, saying: "He just needs to get on with his life."