Napier drugged driver faces jail after head-on crash

Four ambulances and a helicopter ferried injured to hospital from a crash caused by drugged driver Hayden Reece Hudson. Photo / File

A Napier man has admitted driving drugged on methamphetamine and morphine in a crash which hospitalised himself and five others, including his new girlfriend and her two children.

The other injured were a man and woman in an oncoming vehicle, both aged in their 50s.

The crash happened on a Taranaki highway soon after 7am on Tuesday December 10 last year, according to a summary produced by police when Hayden Reece Hudson appeared before Judge David Smith in Napier District Court last week.

Aged 31 at the time, holding just a learner licence and driving without an instructor or supervisor, Hudson was critically injured and was flown to hospital in Wellington.

One child suffered a broken leg, broken wrist and damaged spleen, the other minor chest and abdomen injuries, and the girlfriend a crushed foot, multiple leg and arm fractures and facial lacerations which required stitching. The three were all asleep at the time of the crash.

One of the two in the oncoming vehicle had a broken leg, a broken nose and a serious lip laceration, and the second had soft-tissue chest injuries.

The summary said a sample of blood from Hudson revealed use of meth, morphine, cannabis and ketamine.

The crash happened when the northbound vehicle he was driving veered across the centre-line on the Mountain Rd section of State Highway 3 between Stratford and Inglewood and collided with an oncoming vehicle, just outside the township of Cardiff.

Conditions were said by police to have been "dry and well-lit by sunshine".
Reports at the time said four ambulances and a rescue helicopter were used to take the injured to hospital

In court Hudson pleaded guilty to five charges of drugged driving causing injury, which carry a maximum term of five years' jail. Also admitting other charges, including failing to answer District Court bail, he was remanded in custody for sentencing in the Napier court on December 3.