Phillips held a restricted motorcycle licence and had borrowed the Harley Davidson he was riding from a colleague in Auckland. The 1690CC bike required a full motorcycle licence to ride it.
The group of around 20 motorcyclists had spent the weekend in Nelson and were travelling on a winding stretch of the highway near the Whangamoa Saddle en route to the Picton ferry when some began to overtake a truck and trailer unit.
The speed limit at the time on that stretch of road was 100km/h but has since been reduced to 80km/h.
When the two trucks came into view of each other, 10 of the motorcyclists had already overtaken the truck.
Dash cam footage from the truck travelling towards Nelson, showed four motorcycles on the opposite side of the road, overtaking on a bend.
Both trucks had moved as far left as they could in their respective lanes, but there were around 10m between them when the last two motorcycles tried to finish overtaking.
The first made it, but Phillips crashed and slid into the path of the oncoming truck.
Tasman District crash investigator constable Brett Burns said it was more than likely he clipped the back wheel of the motorcycle in front, causing him to fall in the path of the truck coming in the other direction.
Burns found no fault with the road and inspections showed the motorcycle and trucks had no mechanical faults.
The weather was fine at the time of the crash, the road surface was dry and visibility was good.
Passing motorists and paramedics provided assistance, but Phillips died at the scene from extensive injuries to his pelvis and lower limbs.
- RNZ
