Grieving family disappointed at driver's sentence

A Hastings family has been left heartbroken and angry after a 19-year-old woman driving on a learner's licence crashed into a car, killing two relatives.
Kitiara Mereata Peni-Terekia fell asleep at the wheel on December 10 last year while driving north on SH2 near Te Hauke.
She veered on to the wrong side of the road, narrowly missing a truck, before colliding with a car travelling behind it.
Two people, a 49-year-old man and 31-year-old woman, died at the scene of the crash, while another man was hospitalised with multiple injuries.
Peni-Terekia received a broken leg and foot and yesterday pleaded guilty to two counts of careless driving causing death and one of careless driving causing injury.
She was sentenced to 200 hours' community work and was disqualified from driving for one year.
The maximum penalty for careless driving causing injury and death is a $4500 fine or three months' imprisonment.
The aunt of the eldest daughter of the male victim who died read out a victim impact statement in court.
"This all happened because some young woman, a learner licence driver, breached her conditions ... I do not know if I can ever forgive this woman for the pain and hurt," the statement read.
The daughter wrote she was disappointed in the sentence Peni-Terekia was to receive, because "the maximum penalty is three months and my dad and uncle deserve more than that".
She wrote that rather than spending New Year's Eve celebrating her father's 50th birthday, the family spent it beside his grave.
The former partner of the same victim, the mother of four of his children, said some of her children had turned to alcohol for comfort, "but it did not comfort them at all".
She said she had not only lost one of her best friends, but also the young female victim was her niece.
 A visibly upset Judge Geoff Rea said cases like this were "the very hardest thing a judge has to do". He said his job was to impose a penalty, but that could not stop the grieving for loved ones.
"All I can do is provide people with an opportunity to make it clear to you [Peni-Terekia] there are consequences for even the most trivial breach of the law."
He said she was a high-achiever with a bright future.
Her offence was not to act recklessly, nor was it at the bottom of the scale.
 Judge Rea did not order emotional harm reparation for the family, but stated it would be a sign of he character if she was to pay them money voluntarily.
Peni-Terekia's father, Anthony Terekia, said outside the court his daughter was a bright student who had received a scholarship to study international business at university.
She had taken a semester off because of the accident and had undertaken counselling for depression, but would now return to university.
Mr Terekia said a restorative justice conference held between his family and the families of the three victims had been "emotional" but had helped to heal the wounds.
The former partner of the 49-year-old man said there were "lessons to be learnt" for other young drivers from what had happened to Peni-Terekia.