Sun a key factor in fatal collision

Northland Coroner Brandt Shortland has found that the setting sun played a role in a crash at Kaeo on June 8, 2010, that claimed the life of three-year-old Harlan Batters-Ellis.

Mr Shortland noted, at the conclusion of an in-chambers hearing, that there was clear evidence that a low setting sun had had an impact on the judgement of the deceased's mother, Kelly Batters, who was driving the car in which he was a passenger. That was consistent with the fact that Ms Batters did not see the Toyota utility her car collided with until she was "upon it"; she had attempted to swerve around it but was unsuccessful, her car crossing the centre line and crashing into a tourist bus.

He found that Ms Batters was "more than likely" distracted for a moment immediately before the crash, although it was not "absolute" whether that was the result of her taking her eyes off the road, the sun's rays or something that caught her attention. For whatever reason, she had been unable to stop in time to avoid the collision, the consequences of that being fatal for her son.

Mr Shortland found that Harlan Batters-Ellis died of extensive head and other injuries. The question whether anyone should be prosecuted was one for the police.

The inquest heard that Cooper's Beach woman Jennifer Waldron was driving north shortly before 5pm, police evidence suggesting that the setting sun had affected her vision and ability to drive safely. Ms Waldron had slowed, and when she perceived that a car was approaching on her side of the road she swerved left, her car leaving the road and coming to rest in a ditch some 850 metres north of the SH10/Omanu Road intersection.

She was unhurt but only got out of the car with difficulty, and began waving down passing motorists for assistance.

Marcus Boyed pulled over to the left in his Toyota utility, stopping with the front of the vehicle partly on the shoulder of the road and the rear on the highway. He had just begun talking with Ms Waldron when his vehicle was struck from behind "at speed" by the car driven by Ms Batters.

Bus driver Walter Collins told the inquest that he had rounded a corner "at speed". When he saw two vehicles and people on the road he took his foot off the accelerator, Ms Batters' car rebounding after hitting the utility, spinning in a clockwise direction then hitting the front right corner of his bus. The impact was significant, he added, the rear of the car being wedged under the side of the bus before being "spat out backwards".

The impact with the bus centred on the rear seat area where Harlan was restrained.

One of the bus passengers who assisted at the scene was orthopaedic surgeon Christopher Dawe, who immediately saw that Harlan was critically injured and desperately tried to remove him from his safety harness. He appeared to be deceased.

He was freed from his seat by ambulance staff and flown by rescue helicopter to the Whangaroa Health Centre, where he was pronounced dead.

Senior Constable Jim Hawthorn, who returned to the scene of the crash at the same time the following day, gave evidence that the setting sun impacted on a driver's ability to see clearly. He had formed the view that it would be difficult to identify a parked vehicle on the side of the road "in these circumstances".

He also noted, however, that the rays of the setting sun were filtered through roadside vegetation.

"Therefore drivers, and especially locals with knowledge of the area, should have been aware that they would encounter the sunshine as they turned through the left turn toward the crash site," he said.