KEY POINTS:
A tourist who lost control of a campervan in a crash that killed four motorcyclists and injured two others in South Canterbury on Sunday sobbed uncontrollably as she offered a public apology outside the Christchurch District Court yesterday.
Moments earlier Heike Schellnegger, a 30-year-old Austrian architect, had admitted
four charges of careless driving causing death and two charges of careless driving causing injury.
Timaru man Gavin MacDonald was killed at the scene on State Highway 79 near Fairlie and his 11-year-old daughter Olivia died in hospital the next day. British couple Jonathan Hale and Vivien Butler, who had lived in Timaru for six months, also died.
Schellnegger stood sobbing in the arms of a supporter as her lawyer, Richard Raymond, read aloud a statement prepared on her behalf outside court.
"Miss Schellnegger is extremely traumatised by last Sunday's terrible accident," Mr Raymond said.
"Her deep sense of grief is not for her current predicament but for the families of the victims who are suffering the most tragic and devastating loss. Her sadness to them is overwhelming. She is truly sorry for the pain she has caused."
Police prosecutor Sergeant Lisa Goodson told the court Schellnegger was driving a Britz campervan when she drifted into the shingle on the left hand side of the road about midday last Sunday.
She overcorrected, veering across the centre line and crashing head-on into a group of motorcyclists who were on a charity ride for underprivileged children.
The front two riders - Mr Hale with Ms Butler on the back, followed by Mr MacDonald with Olivia riding pillion - had no time to avoid the campervan and hit it on the front and side, she said.
One of the victims was flung 15m over a hedge.
Another two motorcycles following in the convoy also became caught up in the aftermath. They swerved or struck other vehicles. A 76-year-old man suffered broken ribs and a man in his 40s broke his arm and wrist.
Schellnegger and her partner had been driving around New Zealand for a month and had covered about 5000km without incident.
Schellnegger had no previous convictions and held an Austrian driver's licence and an international driver's licence, said Ms Goodson.
Judge Colin Doherty remanded Schellnegger on bail.
She was due to return home today but had surrendered her passport earlier this week while the case is heard. She will be sentenced this month.
The first police officer on the scene, Senior Constable Russell Halkett of Fairlie, described the crash as the worst he had seen in 17 years in the police.
"It's the worst one I've dealt with in terms of the number of deaths."
The crash closed the highway - a major tourist route in the central South Island - for six hours.
Mr MacDonald's wife and Olivia's mother Sandra MacDonald did not wish to comment on the court appearance.