Emergency services at the scene at Ōtangiwai Point, Lake Rotomā, in April 2021. Photo / Andrew Warner
Warning: This story includes discussion about suicide.
A coroner has backed a call for better barriers at a corner where two cars plunged into a lake within months, killing three people.
Coroner Donna Llewell made the recommendation for Ōtangiwai Point, Lake Rotomā, on State Highway 30 near Rotorua, as part of her findings in the “devastating” 2021 death of Juliet Jacqualine Kaipara, 50, released today.
Police found the Kawerau woman likely intentionally drove over an embankment into the lake 16.5m below, but Coroner Llewell ruled her death accidental.
She found Kaipara managed to escape her upturned car in the lake - showing a will to live - but drowned.
Kaipara was remembered online at the time of her death as a person with an “infectious laugh” who continuously put others first.
Her accident happened overnight between April 11 and 12, 2021 - nine months after Aucklanders Bibi Ali and David Alexander Fawcett Jarden died at the same location.
The coroner previously determined their deaths were accidental, after Jarden likely suffered a medical event at the wheel.
In her findings of September 23, Llewell said Kaipara’s whānau and doctor reported she had no known mental health concerns.
Her whānau had, however, become concerned about her wellbeing in the weeks before her death, prompting her brother to move in with her.
Kaipara was sleeping in her car and would only return home in the mornings to shower.
In the days before the crash, she spent time with whānau, sometimes appearing happy and other times upset.
She made “unusual” statements, including about being “called” by demons and insisting she was going to die, Llewell found.
Kaipara called the police on the morning of April 11, asking to be picked up to confess her sins. She then said she would come in to the station, and repeatedly declined an offer for police to come to her.
The last time her whānau saw her alive was about 9pm that night, packing her car.
About 9.45am the next morning, people stopping at Ōtangiwai Point saw a vehicle in the water and a body submerged nearby. They called emergency services.
Senior Constable Michael Chelley’s crash analysis report said there were no known witnesses to the crash.
Police found the car drove across the opposing lane and roadside rest area, then “vaulted off the embankment” through a gap of about 19m in the metal barriers of a rest area.
She was likely speeding around the sharp corner and may have been impaired by cannabis, with traces found in her blood.
There were no signs of braking, or evidence that weather, road conditions and markings, distraction, fatigue, mechanical issues or phone use were factors in the crash.
Having lived in Kawerau at least 18 years, Kaipara was “likely familiar with this stretch of road”.
Evidence indicated she “somehow managed to release herself” from her seatbelt and escape the car.
Her body, with only superficial injuries, was found on the lakebed about 4m from the vehicle.
While a medical event could not be conclusively ruled out, the crash analyst considered a “lack of evasive action” and a “possible undiagnosed underlying mental health issue could suggest an intentional act”.
Chelley concluded the most likely cause of the crash was an intentional act.
Coroner Llewell’s findings said a death could not amount to suicide if a person’s mental state meant they could not form a suicidal intention.
Kaipara releasing her seatbelt and escaping the car implied she attempted to survive.
While Kaipara’s behaviour may have indicated “mental health imbalance” when she died, Llewell found it was not conclusive of suicidal intention.
“On balance, it is more probable than not that her death was not intentional.”
Llewell concluded Kaipara died by drowning in an accidental crash.
Wooden barriers have been added across the gap between the existing metal Armco barriers at the Ōtangiwai Point rest area since Kaipara died.
The wooden barriers still had “breaks”, which Llewell believed could be to allow foot access to the lake from the rest area, which was used for dive training.
Police had recommended the metal barriers be extended and overlap, to stop vehicles from leaving the road.
Llewell endorsed the recommendation and said commercial or private interests should not displace the public interest of reducing the risk of more vehicles going into the lake.
A New Zealand Transport Agency spokesperson told the Rotorua Daily Post the wooden sight-rails were installed after the 2021 crash.
“NZTA will now undertake a safety review of the location and assess the options for closing off the unprotected section of the lake shore, as far as is practicable, while maintaining the amenity.”
Both Llewell and the NZTA offered condolences to Kaipara’s whānau and friends.
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.