Police defend driving charge for woman stuck in car wreck

Marion Hounsome describes the crash and rescue from a hospital bed in Greymouth. Picture / Simon Baker

Police are defending their decision to prosecute a multiple sclerosis sufferer who endured a two-day ordeal trapped in West Coast bush with her elderly mother after a vehicle crash.

Singing teacher Marion Hounsome, 40, has been charged with careless use of a motor vehicle after her van plunged down a steep bank when she failed to take a sharp bend in a remote area near Fox Glacier this month.

She and her mother, Glenys Hounsome, 71, were stranded for two days before Australian tourists who stopped nearby to take photographs of the scenery heard their cries.

Glenys Hounsome required surgery for an injured knee. Marion Hounsome's medical condition means she walks with a cane and needs a wheelchair to travel longer distances.

"I'm not happy about [being charged], but that's life," Marion Hounsome told the Herald.

"They obviously think I deserve it. It's just how it goes."

Inspector Hugh Flower said police had taken into account the ordeal Ms Hounsome went through.

"But the bottom line is that she shouldn't have driven off the road. It was below the prudent standard required of drivers.

"We have sympathy for the ordeal they went through, and that is something the court can take into account in mitigation of penalty. It's not as if it will be dismissed altogether.

"We have to consider the public interest and whether members of the public in a similar situation have been prosecuted."

After the crash, Marion Hounsome said: "I really thought I was doing everything right, but obviously I didn't. And we just went over the edge and the car turned over, I don't know how many times, and just landed on its roof."

Glenys Hounsome, who had been visiting her daughter from England and plans to return next month said the crash had been an ordeal for the pair "and in Marion's case especially".

She was standing by her daughter who "did her best" in the situation.

"No one could say accurately exactly what happened in those few seconds [of the crash]."

Glenys Hounsome is still in a wheelchair after injuring her knee as she cannot put weight on her left leg.

"I think a piece of the knee was knocked off and had to be wired back into place. It's not painful, it's just an inconvenience."

Marion Hounsome is listed to appear in the Whataroa District Court on December 7 to face the charge. She faces a fine of up to $3000 and disqualification of her driver's licence.