Norton Charles Kitchener Sowerby appeared in the High Court at Hamilton today for sentencing on three charges of manslaughter and one of reckless driving causing injury. Photo / Belinda Feek
High on meth, Norton Sowerby drove his car onto train tracks, causing it to be struck by an oncoming train and killing three of his friends.
Immediately after the crash, he swallowed pills and told police that he was not the driver.
But he was.
The 37-year-old had ignored pleas from his passengers not to drive through the controlled barrier train crossing on Peachgrove Rd in Hamilton early on November 13, last year.
The vehicle was struck by a passing train, killing three of his friends.
William Chaney Marsters Brown, 46, Shylin Huirama-Osborne, 26, and Sione Leapulu Nusipepa, 23, all died in the early morning crash. A fourth passenger survived but was seriously injured.
Sowerby later returned a methamphetamine reading of 300ng/ml. The high-risk limit is 50ng/ml.
Today, he was in the High Court at Hamilton for sentencing on three charges of manslaughter and one of reckless driving causing injury.
Justice Mathew Downs told Sowerby - who has six previous convictions for driving while disqualified - that he was never even meant to be behind the wheel that day, let alone driving while high on meth.
“You were also serving a sentence of intensive supervision when you did this, somewhat ironically, that was for driving while disqualified.”
Justice Downs labelled Sowerby’s actions as “profoundly reckless”.
Details of the crash revealed that Sowerby was driving his Holden Captiva south on Peachgrove Rd at 4.29am when he came to the crossing.
A vehicle had already stopped and the warning lights were flashing and the barrier arm was down.
Sowerby overtook the car in front by driving onto the wrong side of the road.
He ignored his passengers’ protests to stop and drove diagonally through the barrier arms.
The train, travelling west towards the CBD, was unable to stop and struck the vehicle’s left rear door, causing it to spin before and colliding with the metal support of the northbound barrier arm, where it came to a stop.
Police arrived at the scene within minutes and found Sowerby in the driver’s seat.
“I’m not the driver,” he told them.
One of the victims had been ejected from the rear seat of the car by the force of the impact and was found dead on Peachgrove Rd.
Two of the other victims were found dead in the back seat, while the surviving passenger suffered injuries to his cheekbone, spine, scalp, and chest.
A member of the public who heard the crash went to the scene and saw Sowerby swallowing pills from his bag.
Police also found a meth pipe in Sowerby’s bag that was around his waist.
After being taken to Waikato Hospital, Sowerby reiterated that he wasn’t the driver.
Defence counsel Nadine Baier said her client accepted that this was a case involving an “extremely sad and tragic outcome for what was appallingly bad, dangerous, and reckless split-second decision made by Mr Sowerby”.
“That decision was made by his impairment of methamphetamine to a high level, that’s accepted.”
She said her client didn’t intend for the crash or the deaths to occur, and he would have to live with his decision for the rest of his life.
Those who died and were injured were his friends, she said.
A pre-sentence report said Sowerby offered no explanation for the offending, other than he just “wanted to do it”, saying the victims told him to “hit it”.
Baier said that had been an early comment made by Sowerby and he had accepted that one passenger had said, “bro, bro, bro”, effectively meaning to stop.
“And he’s made the decision and gone across the tracks.”
Asked whether there were any more comments by passengers encouraging him to cross the tracks, Baier said there weren’t.
She sought a 25% discount for Sowerby’s guilty pleas, entered five months after he was charged, and credit for his background and meth addiction.
Justice Downs noted the Crown described Sowerby’s actions as “deliberate”, while the defence labelled them “impulsive”.
“You took three lives through profoundly reckless driving,” he said.
“You were driving under the influence of methamphetamine and intoxicated, and when you should not have been driving at all.”
Justice Downs was also critical of Sowerby’s denial that he was driving.
“[Defence counsel Nadine] Baier says your initial reaction was shock, but shock does not explain your later hospital denial.”
The judge noted the impact on the victims’ families.
“Nothing I can say can capture the enormity of the harm you have done.
“There are three grieving families and many, many affected people.”
A whānau member of Brown said they didn’t have the words to describe his loss, while a member of Huirama-Osborne’s family has found that time has not healed the pain of losing his loved one.
Nusipepa‘s whānau said his children would now only get to see him on a screen or on a print.
The surviving passenger had been left with life-changing injuries, suffering constant headaches and difficulty breathing.
But despite that, he still had “sympathy” for Sowerby, the court heard.
Justice Downs allowed a 25% discount for his guilty plea before sending him to prison for eight years.
He imposed a minimum non-parole period of four years.
“You could, and should, have appreciated that what you were doing was profoundly dangerous and likely to result in death,” he told Sowerby.
“In short, you should have appreciated your driving comprised a death trap.”
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.