COURT: Trial overwhelms accused

A distraught Taupo woman charged with causing a crash that killed a close friend was yesterday allowed to be absent from the courtroom of her trial after a plea by her lawyer to a judge in the Napier District Court.
Melinda Anne Rogan, 28, sobbed near the point of collapse, blocking her ears as the case against her was opened by Crown prosecutor Nicola Graham, outlining the pre-dawn tragedy which killed Karen Joy Kelland, 39, at State Highway 5 near Tarawera, on February 8 last year.
The case was adjourned sharply by Judge Geoff Rea when one of the seven men on the 12-strong jury indicated he had realised he may have known the police officer in charge of the case.
The judge allowed the trial to continue a juror short but its resumption was further delayed after defence counsel Katherine Ewen's request on behalf of the accused.
Rogan, an Australian national with no other family in New Zealand, had pleaded not guilty to one charge of careless driving causing the death of the passenger in her car, and one of careless driving causing injury to Kaoru Aoki, a female passenger in an oncoming Isuzu Bighorn.
Miss Kelland died at the scene, and Miss Aoki, whose evidence was read to the court, was flown to Hawke's Bay Hospital with mainly facial injuries.
The Crown alleged the crash was caused by excessive speed on a section of road with a temporary speed limit of 30km/h because of roadworks, on a tight bend at a peak in the road south of Tarawera.
Miss Graham said the accused, who with her passenger was on her way home from work in Napier, told a police officer it had been dark and she hadn't seen the signs.
The driver of the other vehicle, Herbertville contractor and volunteer fireman Russell Bee, told the court he and his passengers were about an hour out of Taupo heading towards Napier when he saw the car driven by Rogan heading towards him side-on.
He was unable to avoid the collision as the car, still side-on, struck the front of his vehicle.
He leapt out and checked Rogan who was able to get out of her vehicle, distraught but apparently uninjured. But he quickly determined that Miss Kelland was badly injured, and even with the help of others at the scene with first aid experience "there was little we could do to change the situation".
He said there was a small patch of new sealing with loose gravel, and marking-cones which appeared to have been at the side of the road rather than on the seal.
Appearing as a defence witness, Senior Constable Danny Jones, of Taupo, said police had the previous night received a complaint from another motorist that a section of roadworks in the area was inadequately signposted and unsafe, but the exact position was not known.
Evidence ended yesterday, and the trial was to conclude today with closing addresses, the judge's summary and the jury's deliberations.
(Proceeding)