An ambulance driver's carelessness caused the death of naturopath Geytha Anne Sharp, 66, in a head-on collision south of Dunedin, a judge has found.
The ambulance driven by 48-year-old Carol Anne Forrest had been on the wrong side of the road when it crashed into Mrs Sharp's car because Forrest either
had fallen asleep or had been momentarily distracted, said Dunedin District Court Judge John Macdonald.
Whether she had been asleep - "in my view the most likely scenario, there being ample evidence she would have been tired from the hours worked that week" - or distracted for some unknown reason, Forrest's failure to see Mrs Sharp's car amounted to carelessness, the judge said in his reserved decision.
He ruled out a mechanical defect as a possible cause of the accident and found Forrest had caused the death of Mrs Sharp by driving carelessly on State Highway 1 near Allanton on March 14 last year.
The upset defendant bowed her head as the judge announced his finding.
Members of Mrs Sharp's family welcomed the decision. Her eldest son, Steven, said the finding had confirmed for them what was "blatantly obvious from the start".
Forrest's denial of responsibility had been the hardest thing for the family to bear.
The case had highlighted some inadequacies in the St John Ambulance service, which was "a very, very good organisation but totally underfunded", he said.
Forrest, a nurse at the Clutha Health First Hospital and a St John Ambulance driver in Balclutha, had denied causing the death of Mrs Sharp by driving carelessly. She was remanded for a reparation report and sentence on August 9.
- NZPA
