Invercargill couple Mervyn and Alisa Hackett had no chance of surviving a State Highway 1 car crash 12km northeast of Ashburton on January 31, 2001, a coroner's hearing has been told.
The Hacketts were travelling north along State Highway 1 in the early hours of that morning when their vehicle collided
with a trailer which had come free from a truck travelling south.
The driver of the truck and trailer unit, James O'Kane, told the court he had left Christchurch about 4am for Dunedin. He had done a circuit around the truck to make sure everything was in place. The lights were still going and the safety chain was found to be secure and connected.
When he heard a bang Mr O'Kane assumed it was a blown tyre.
When he got out of the truck he saw the trailer had gone but, because of the light, was unable to locate its exact whereabouts.
It was not until two trucks passed that they were able to provide information on the accident.
Detective Paul Hayden told the court there was no sign of braking or evasive action taken by the Hacketts' vehicle. This indicated that they did not see the trailer in their lane until it was right on them.
An inspection found that the critical load bearing area of the trailer's drawbar had been subjected to periodic cycles of stress and successive repairs had failed to restore the drawbar to a safe condition.
As a result of this, criminal nuisance charges were laid against the owners of the trailer, Butlers Auto Mart. The company pleaded guilty.
Coroner Laurence Cooney questioned why a warrant of fitness was granted for the trailer within about a month of the accident, and why there were delays in having the files prepared for the hearing.
He found the couple died from injuries in the crash.
- NZPA
