Fatal crash driver jailed for three years

File photo / NZH

The man responsible for the deaths of a 6-month-old baby and one of his own mates has been jailed for three years.

Karl Phillip Robinson, 23, appeared in the Whakatane District Court this month facing two charges of dangerous driving causing death, three of dangerous driving causing injury and one of driving while his licence was suspended. The charges relate to a crash on State Highway 34 near Kawerau in March.

Robinson had been driving his Holden V8 Clubsport carrying two passengers.

Police conservatively estimate his speed to have been about 161km/h but believe it could have been as high as 212km/h. He was also suspended from driving because of an excess of demerit points, something he had been through twice before.

Robinson attempted to overtake a Toyota flatdeck truck, driven by Katarina Tupe with her partner Riki Hale and their 6-month-old daughter Kalaisha as passengers, but had to pull back into his lane because of an oncoming car.

As he pulled in he struck the rear of the truck, shunting it off the road and causing it to roll several times before it came to rest on its roof.

The impact caused the Holden to become airborne and veer across into the opposite lane in front of a southbound vehicle. The Holden landed on the road and travelled 85m before it struck a concrete power pole.

The car smashed the power pole and continued on for another 32m before stopping on its roof and bursting into flames.

Kalaisha Hale, who was belted into a carseat, never regained consciousness and died the following day at Starship Hospital.

Fraser Nathan, who was restrained in the passenger seat of the Holden, could not be saved from the car as it burned and he died at the scene.

Judge Thomas Ingram described Robinson's driving as poor and said it was one of the worst crashes he had dealt with.

Robinson, who remains in a wheelchair because of injuries suffered in the crash, was also disqualified from driving for five years.

- Rotorua Daily Post