Driver spared jail term for fatal smash

Ryan Smith leaves the Dargaville District Court yesterday after being sentenced to community service. Picture / Greg Bowker

A teenager who had been drinking before he crashed a car into a tidal drain, killing a 17-year-old woman, has been spared a jail sentence.

Ryan Craig Smith, 18, was sentenced to 400 hours of community service and banned from driving for two years for the accident, which took the life of Maia Teese and seriously injured another passenger, James Oliver.

A coroner later ruled that Miss Teese died from a combination of head injuries and drowning, as water levels rose in the drain.

Smith, who suffered serious head injuries himself, failed to alert police that she was in the car.

At Dargaville District Court Judge James Rota said there could be many reasons for that silence and "we can only speculate".

Smith, who was 17 at the time, remembers nothing of the crash or the aftermath and even days later was unable to say how many people were in the car, his father, Craig Smith, said outside the court.

Judge Rota said it was possible that Miss Teese might have been saved had she been found earlier.

"But the water overtook her and we just don't know that."

The crash happened on January 29 about 2.30am. Smith failed to negotiate a sharp turn on to a bridge and plunged into the drain.

Whether he was asleep or whether he was drunk would never be known, said the judge.

A blood test showed 25mg of alcohol, but because of the farm labourer's injuries, the test was not completed until about seven hours after the crash.

Judge Rota said he would not send Smith to prison because that would not help anyone.

The two charges were careless driving causing death and careless driving causing injury.

"A sentence cannot bring the deceased back and prison would cause damage upon damage," Judge Rota said.

Smith was also ordered to pay $9300 to Miss Teese's family and $700 to Mr Oliver.

Outside the court, Craig Smith said his son was not a bad person and was hugely remorseful for what he had done.

"We see that in him every morning. He knows he made a mistake and has never tried to deny that," Mr Smith said.

As Mr Smith was talking, his son swung his fist at the Herald photographer taking his picture.

Stephen Teese, the dead woman's father, said he did not want Ryan Smith to go to prison and held no anger towards the teenager.

"But forgiveness? That's a very hard thing to do," he said. "I can't look at a picture of my daughter without crying."