Driver who tried to pull dead friend from burning van after crash jailed for drug-driving

After crashing his van into a power pole Cong Giap Nguyen was seen trying to pull his friend Alex Blackwell from the backseat of the burning vehicle.

Nguyen was getting severely burned in the March 2021 incident and bystanders had to stop him from attempting the rescue. Blackwell, 33, died at the scene.

Firefighters try to extinguish the flames at the crash scene. Photo / Hayden Woodward

The 32-year-old Nguyen was crying on the side of the road before emergency workers took him to hospital, his lawyer Callum Fredric told the North Shore District Court where he was sentenced to jail on Monday.

A non-English speaker, Nguyen turned to say sorry to Blackwell’s mother in court through an interpreter before he was taken away by a security officer.

Burn scars from the crash marked his right arm, blurring out the lower half of a dragon tattoo visible to the public gallery as he stood in the dock.

Blackwell was in the “prime of his life”, with his little boy just 3 years old when he was taken, the victim’s father told the court in a statement read out by Crown prosecutor Kristy Li.

“He’ll never hear his child laugh, and never know what life could be,” Gordon Blackwell wrote.

Blackwell’s mother said she still couldn’t process the loss of her son, who was supporting her through a cancer diagnosis when he died.

Lost control

The crash happened in the early hours of a rainy March 29, 2021 in West Auckland.

According to a court summary, Nguyen was driving a Mazda Bongo with Blackwell in the backseat about 3.40am.

Alex Blackwell, pictured here in 2013, was a father of a 3-year-old and in the "prime of his life" when he died in 2021.

They were on Triangle Rd in Massey and the road was damp with rain when Nguyen rounded a moderate left-hand bend and lost control of the vehicle.

The van spun anti-clockwise, going across the footpath and a grassy area before striking a power pole.

The van then spun clockwise off the power pole and came to a stop nearby, catching fire immediately.

Nguyen escaped the fire with moderate burns to his right arm and side, but Blackwell died as a result of blunt force trauma from the crash.

Investigators determined he had already died when the car caught fire.

Methamphetamine was later found in Nguyen’s blood sample and he told police he had been awake since 10am the day before.

The van was heavy with work gear and slipped on the damp road when he braked, he said.

Nguyen, 32, was jailed for two years and three months for the driving and drug offences. Photo / NZME

At sentencing, Judge Kevin Muir said there was no evidence Nguyen was speeding, although he drove too fast for the conditions, while sleep-deprived and under the influence of drugs.

The judge said the accused chose to drive Blackwell even though his passenger was not wearing a seatbelt.

The two men worked together and Nguyen called Blackwell his friend, the court heard.

The Vietnamese national came to New Zealand in 2017, leaving his parents, wife, and two children in Vietnam while he worked as a painter and tiler.

He co-operated with police after the crash and was released on bail, but then went on the run for nearly a year.

He was later arrested in June 2022 at a police checkpoint, with 1.5kg of cannabis, 0.4g of methamphetamine, and a meth pipe in his car.

Fredric said the foreign national did not hand himself in out for fear because he did not understand English or the daunting court process.

Judge Muir sentenced Nguyen to two years and three months in jail - two years for the charge of causing death while under the influence of drugs, plus a three-month uplift on the charges of possessing cannabis and methamphetamine.

The judge said jail would be difficult for the non-English speaker with no family support in New Zealand, and he would be deported after serving his sentence.

“Look after yourself in prison,” he said to Nguyen.