Robert Wayne Clifford has been sentenced to prison in the Blenheim District Court for causing a crash that killed RSE worker Kaiea Taubakoa on a morning in June last year. Photo / NZME composite
A truck driver who was on his phone when he smashed into a van, killing one person and injuring five others, had been caught using a cellphone while driving four times before.
According to experts, there was no indication that Robert Wayne Clifford even braked before ploughing into the back of the van carrying Kaiea Taubakoa and other RSE workers.
All of the workers were from the small Pacific nation of Kiribati and had recently arrived in Marlborough for the winter vineyard season.
The impact at more than 70km/h shunted the van about 160m, killing Taubakoa, who was seated in the rear of the van, and injuring five others, some badly.
Today, in the Blenheim District Court Clifford was jailed for two years and three months on charges he has since lived to fully regret, and had done what was within his power to make amends.
That included handing over his life savings of $20,000 in reparation to the victims and their families.
Judge Jo Rielly said in sentencing Clifford’s efforts to engage with the victims of the crash he caused had led to a form of friendship he planned to continue.
The crash in June 2024 on a stretch of SH1 near Grovetown, Blenheim, happened a week after the workers had moved from the North Island kiwifruit orchards to prune winter grapevines in Marlborough.
Clifford, 54, pleaded guilty earlier this year to dangerous driving causing death and five charges of dangerous driving causing injury to workers Mafi Kitiona, Tamuera Teawaki, Iotebwa Kautunamakin, Nakaiea Raiwan and Toomi Taniiti.
All were in court for the sentencing, and spoke of the ongoing trauma and the losses suffered, not only of their close friend but also livelihoods relied upon by families back home from being out of work for weeks while they recovered.
In victim impact statements read on their behalf by Crown prosecutor Jackson Webber, Kitiona, who was driving the van that day, spoke of the emotional pain and anguish at the memory of Taubakoa gasping while taking his last breath.
He knew he had done nothing wrong to cause the tragedy that remained with him, and would for life.
Kautunamakin remembered the screaming while Taubakoa’s partner recalled how he had loved being in New Zealand and the vineyard work he said was easier than the fishing boats he had once worked on in Japan.
She described him as the most helpful person she had ever met, and a man who loved his friends, loved to sing and perform karaoke, and who was committed to the church.
Clifford appeared to hold back tears as the woman’s statement revealed how his actions had affected a lot of people, and would continue to do so for the rest of their lives.
Taubakoa’s brother said how he had aimed for a better life for himself and that Taubakoa’s young son he had left in Kiribati didn’t deserve to grow up without his dad.
The workers had arrived in the country three months earlier under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.
According to a summary of facts, rain had fallen overnight in Marlborough and a chill wind was blowing on the morning of June 20 last year.
The roads were wet at 6.31am as the crew got into their vanto start work in a Grovetown vineyard.
Minutes before, Clifford drove his truck out of a yard south of Blenheim bound for a site in Queen Charlotte Drive, in the Marlborough Sounds.
The GPS tracking device in the truck showed his movements through the Blenheim residential area on SH1.
At 6.32am the van was seen on CCTV driving north on Grove Rd. Clifford’s truck was about 200m behind.
As the vehicles approached a bridge, where the speed limit changed soon after from 50km/h to 100km/h, just 18 seconds separated the two vehicles.
The van, with its headlights and taillights on, continued along the well-lit road for about 300m before slowing down and indicating right on to Lower Wairau Rd.
It stopped near the centreline and waited for oncoming traffic before turning.
Clifford, who had used his cellphone to activate Spotify and make phone calls in the minutes leading to the crash, was 14 seconds behind the stationary van in the middle of the road.
Police said Clifford was on the phone and unable to manoeuvre like the two vehicles before him, and collided with the rear of the van while travelling between 71km/h and 74km/h.
The impact was so great it concertinaed the van as it was shunted 160m down the road, before stopping on a grass verge.
Raiwan was flown to Wellington Hospital with severe facial injuries while Kitiona was taken to Wairau Hospital with chest and back injuries.
Taniiti suffered pain and suspected fractures plus a head wound.
Kautunamakin was also taken to Wairau Hospital with multiple rib fractures and open wounds on his left shoulder, right hip and left thumb.
Teawaki was treated for a sprained neck.
Friend and support advocate for the RSE workers, Tokanang Harrison told NZME earlier he was at work when he heard the news.
“There was a couple of late trucks and they said, ‘oh, there’s a van that’s been run down’.”
The former truck driver was worried when he heard “van”, knowing the RSE workers were typically on the road around that time. His fears were confirmed when he heard the van bore the markings of an RSE worker vehicle.
He phoned one of the “boys” in the close-knit Kiribati community, and a team leader told him his translation services would be needed.
“I knew then there’d been an accident, but I didn’t know someone died.”
Taubakoa’s mother in Kiribati was devastated, and broke down when the community was finally able to make contact.
Harrison said it was so hard for families when workers left to work overseas and then something like this happened.
Taubakoa was farewelled in a “moving service” in Blenheim on July 4 last year, before his body was sent home to Kiribati for burial beside the house he had built from local materials.
The summary of facts showed Clifford already had four infringements for using a cellphone while driving, three while driving a heavy truck.
Webber, for the prosecution, said one might describe what happened as an accident, except it wasn’t in the sense it was totally preventable.
“He was doing something he never should have been doing, and a man died far away from his family,” Webber said of Clifford’s “especially selfish” actions.
“It was a deliberate choice to use a phone, which was a habit he had.”
Barrister Johanna Guest, who acted for Clifford’s defence lawyer at sentencing, said he acknowledged what happened was a “serious lapse in judgment” resulting in the tragic loss of life.
Guest said Clifford and his family had also suffered acutely, and the mental scars were ongoing.
She said he had also lost his job and his livelihood but was mindful of the impact on all the victims and wanted to help support them as best he could.
Judge Rielly acknowledgedthe victims who were present, and how the process might bring closure but was unlikely to ameliorate the extensive grief suffered.
She also thanked the victims for their kindness and willingness to engage in the restorative justice process.
Judge Rielly also acknowledged Clifford’s genuine response to the victims’ grief, which had been expressed in a meaningful way.
She said the accident had also been life-defining for him.
From a three-and-a-half year starting point, Clifford received a two-year and three-month prison sentence, taking into account his guilty pleas, genuine remorse expressed in his reparation offer of $20,000 now and $5000 more in future.
Taubakoa’s family would receive $10,000 and the five victims would receive $2000 each from the initial payment, plus a further $1000 when it became available.
Clifford was also disqualified from driving for three years.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.