Geoffrey and Karen Boucher were hit by a motorcycle as they crossed a highway at Bethlehem, near Tauranga. The bike's rider now faces manslaughter charges in the High Court at Rotorua.
“They went flying into the air”.
That was how a witness described the moment a motorcycle hit two pedestrians as they crossed State Highway 2 at Bethlehem near Tauranga.
Geoffrey Raymond Boucher, 59, and his wife, Karen Jane Boucher, 56, were walking home, shoulder to shoulder, after an evening meal together at a local restaurant on July 22, 2022.
As they made their way across the road at a pedestrian crossing controlled by traffic lights, a motorbike hit them. The couple suffered “unsurvivable injuries” and died at the scene.
Now a 60-year-old man, who cannot be named, is defending two counts of manslaughter in the High Court at Rotorua.
While the defendant accepts he caused the Bouchers’ deaths, he does not accept that his actions amounted to manslaughter.
He also faces a charge of dangerous driving causing injury, for the injuries suffered by his pillion passenger, Deijah Cook.
A witness, whose statement was read by the Crown, was driving through the intersection on the other side of the road when they saw the couple walking across the traffic-light-controlled pedestrian crossing.
“When the two people were in the middle of crossing, I saw a motorbike come through the Bethlehem roundabout,” the statement read.
“Just as my light turned green, the motorbike collided with the two people crossing the road. As the rider hit the two people, they went flying into the air.”
The witness drove around the roundabout and back to the scene of the incident, where they helped to stop traffic and call emergency services.
The Crown case, led by prosecutors Ian Murray and Camille Houia, is that the motorcyclist, who can’t be named for legal reasons, committed three “interconnected unlawful and dangerous acts” − speeding, cutting across lanes, and failing to stop at the red light − when he collided with the Bouchers.
The jury would have to decide whether these actions were so negligent that they constituted a “major departure” from the ordinary standard of care expected of a reasonable person riding a motorcycle.
In her opening address, Houia said the couple had been out for dinner at The Orchard in Bethlehem and decided to walk home.
CCTV showed them walking shoulder-to-shoulder before they were seen “lawfully crossing” at the traffic-light controlled pedestrian crossing near the Pizza Hut at the Bethlehem shops.
Houia alleged that at the same time, the motorcyclist was riding his Harley Davidson motorbike “well above” the speed limit and had “flown through” the roundabout and changed lanes, turning it into “virtually a straight piece of road”.
She said the Crown case was that this allowed him to maintain his speed, and then “without any real braking” he rode straight into the couple, failing to stop at the red light.
“It’s as a result of these dangerous and unlawful actions that the defendant faces trial before you,” Houia told the jury.
While the man faces two charges of manslaughter, there are alternative charges of dangerous driving causing death, which the jury can consider if they don’t find the Crown has proved the manslaughter charges beyond reasonable doubt.
The focus for the jury would be on the man’s driving immediately before and at the time of the collision, Houia said.
A Crown witness, Remya Rajagopal, said as she merged into a single lane at the bottom of a hill, having just come off the expressway heading towards the Bethlehem roundabout, she’d been surprised to see a bike “whoosh” past her.
She told the court she’d had to brake to avoid a potential collision as the motorcycle cut her off.
Rajagopal continued up to the roundabout, having not seen the bike again, and then saw a red car stopped with its hazard lights on at the collision site.
She’d stayed in her car until emergency services arrived, as she had her children with her.
The motorcyclist is represented by Ron Mansfield, KC, who told the jury there could be no doubt the collision caused “significant loss”.
Mansfield said it was not a trial where the jury would hear the lawyers “bellowing away” regarding what was or was not true.
His client accepted he was riding the motorcycle that struck the Bouchers, and this resulted in the loss of their lives.
“He accepts he is responsible, morally and legally at fault for the accident,” Mansfield said.
He also accepted he’d been riding above the posted speed limit.
However, the man did not accept he should have been charged with manslaughter − the “very highest charge” the Crown could have selected for “such a tragic occurrence as this”.
Mansfield said the reality was most people would travel above the posted speed limit when they thought it was safe to do so.
“We can’t sit here and pretend that we don’t ourselves drive above the posted speed limit when we think it’s okay to do that,” he said.
“We might be wrong, there might be dreadful consequences, but we all do it.”
Mansfield said there was more to the collision than just the motorcyclist’s speed.
His client hadn’t seen the red light, nor the pedestrians, and the defence would look at why that might have been, in terms of signage and road layout.
The defence would present evidence to suggest the pedestrian crossing was “inherently dangerous”, in terms of its proximity to the roundabout and visibility, especially at night.
“All we’re suggesting is that whilst he was travelling at a speed above the posted speed limit, and that’s a factor you’ll have to take into account and one that he acknowledges, that in and of itself doesn’t make him guilty of manslaughter,” Mansfield said.
The trial before Justice Cheryl Gwyn continues.
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.