Changing cassette caused four-person fatality

Four people died in a Bay of Plenty car crash after a driver who was changing a cassette tape drifted on to the wrong side of the road into the path of an oncoming car, a coroner's inquest has found.

The accident, involving two cars, happened on State Highway 2 at Te Puna, 11km west of Tauranga, on November 11 last year.

Tauranga coroner Michael Cooney found that Marton couple Richard Eves, aged 68, and Noreen Catherine Eves, 71, Auckland man Craig Noel Campbell Radka, 24, and Emily Francis Hill, 25, of Sydney, all died as a result of the injuries they received in the accident.

"This accident, which has resulted in the deaths of four people, dramatically and tragically illustrates the consequences which can occur as a result of a driver's lack of concentration," said Mr Cooney.

He said Mr Radka's car drifted across the road into the path of Mr and Mrs Eves' car, while his attention was focused on changing a tape in the cassette player that had become jammed. Ms Hill was a passenger in Mr Radka's car.

Mr Radka was found with his left hand near the cassette player, and a broken cassette and shredded tape on his knees. A new cassette was in the player.

There was no evidence that either vehicle was speeding, or that there was any attempt by Mr Radka to brake.

Despite concern about the number of fatalities on the section of road between Tauranga and Katikati, the road conditions did not contribute to the accident, which was caused solely by driver inattention, Mr Cooney said.

In another inquest, the coroner said road conditions might have played a part in an accident in which a Rotorua driver lost control of her car, killing herself and a Mt Maunganui man.

Mr Cooney found that Agnes Bella Selwyn, 59, of Rotorua, and Collin Ashton White Turley, 72, of Mt Maunganui, died from injuries sustained on October 29 last year.

Four other people were injured in the accident - Mr Turley's wife and Mrs Selwyn's two grandchildren and one of their friends.

Constable Michael Fischer told the court that Mrs Selwyn was travelling from Rotorua to Tauranga to celebrate her 60th birthday a few days later.

She entered a moderate left-hand bend too fast in the area of Three Mile Hill, lost control of her vehicle and slid across the centre line into the path of Mr Turley's car.

The coroner said the accident happened just south of a section of road where there had been a large number of fatalities, and that road had now been reconstructed.

Mr Cooney said that while the crash investigator believed road conditions were not a predominant factor in the accident, he believed slippery conditions provided an explanation of why Mrs Selwyn lost control of her car.

- NZPA