Jack Greer, inset, has sold the car he was racing on the night that Olivia Hintz died. Photo / Facebook
A young boy racer who participated in an early morning street race that ended in the death of a teenage girl has been told by a judge to speak at his former school about what happened in a bid to discourage others from street racing.
“Maybe the apology is you persuading others in your age group,” a judge told 18-year-old Jack Greer at his recent sentencing.
“You went to Awatapu College. Go there, tell those young men about your experience, your lived experience and what happened.”
However, Greer will have to wait until next year before he can give a talk about the mistakes he made on the night Olivia Hintz died because he was sentenced to nine months’ home detention.
While Hintz wasn’t in his car, and he didn’t crash, he still took part in an illegal street race that resulted in the other car crashing, killing the 16-year-old girl and severely injuring the driver.
According to the summary of facts, Greer had been at a work function on the evening of October 31 last year.
He left around 1am, the same time another driver, whom he did not know, left the same event.
Greer followed the car of the other driver, a then 17-year-old boy who had in the car with him Hintz and another passenger, Sarah Crawford.
As they travelled along Fitzherbert Ave in Palmerston North, Greer overtook the other car at an intersection, travelling more than 100 km/h.
He then received a call from Crawford, whom he knew, challenging him to another race.
One of the main roads in the city, John F Kennedy Drive, was agreed upon, and the two cars pulled up beside one another at 1.45am before taking off.
Greer’s car reached a speed of up to 142 km/h on the suburban street, but it was the driver of the other car who lost control just 600m into the race as he entered a corner, eventually striking a tree.
Hintz died at the scene, and the driver suffered a traumatic brain injury and spent a month in a specialist rehabilitation centre.
That driver appeared in the Youth Court in June, meaning he can not be named, and was sentenced to six months’ supervision. He was ordered to pay $5000 to Hintz’s family and $2000 to Crawford.
However, because Greer was over 18, his case went to the District Court, where he was charged with causing Hintz’s death by way of his participation in the race.
At his sentencing, Judge Bruce Northwood said it was to Greer’s credit that after the crash, he stopped and did a U-turn to check on the occupants.
“All too often in court, we deal with crash cases, and somebody runs. They do not take responsibility. They leave the scene and the destruction behind,” he said.
Greer said in a pre-sentence report that he had persistent thoughts about the crash, and had sold the 1998 Subaru Legacy he’d been driving that night.
He has done restorative justice with Hintz’s family, has apologised to them and has agreed to write them letters as well.
There was also talk between Greer and Hintz’s family about contributing to a campaign to make streets safer.
Greer received discounts for an early guilty plea, youth and for his remorse.
However, when it came to emotional harm reparation, his lawyer, Philip Drummond, suggested he speak at local school assemblies instead.
“…it has the potential to send a powerful message to the age group that are at risk,” he said.
“The reality is teens do not give any thought to the potential for something to go wrong, and what seems like good fun can turn into tragedy.”
Drummond’s idea followed the sentencing of the youth who was driving the other car that night, where his sentencing judge suggested he connect with vulnerable young people to dissuade them from adopting “the boy racer bravado”.
“These are the vulnerable young people who could be swayed,” Judge Jill Moss told the youth. “Peers make each other think.”
Judge Northwood said that his colleague, Judge Moss, was saying that Greer and the other driver had a role in helping people “not be the fools you and he were that night”.
As such, Judge Northwood didn’t order Greer to make an emotional harm payment at his sentencing, but said that by way of an apology to the family, he could speak to students at Awatapu College, where he attended, to talk about what happened.
Greer’s lawyer told NZME that his client intended to do this as soon as his sentence of home detention ended in roughly seven months.
Awatapu College principal Gary Yeatman said he would be open to the possibility of Greer speaking at an assembly.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.