The girl required hospital treatment for multiple grazes and bruising to her hands, elbow, shoulder and leg and has continued to suffer bad headaches since the accident on July 19.
Menzies, who appeared frail and walked with the help of a cane, was assisted into the dock where she sat crestfallen, and could be heard to agree with Judge Mary O’Dwyer on the facts over what was described as a “very unfortunate” matter.
She has since had her licence revoked on medical grounds but was disqualified from driving for six months in line with the conviction entered on the charges.
Menzies admitted the charges at a court appearance last year, and while she had stopped to help the victim, she had failed to report the accident to the police.
The victim’s mother contacted the police and the charges followed.
At 3.20pm Menzies was driving her car south on Hill St, heading in the same direction as the school girl.
Schools in the area, which had a 50km/h speed limit, had just ended for the day and there was moderate traffic headed in both directions.
As the victim was biking along, she came across a parked car on the side of the road and was forced to move to the right to get past it.
She checked over her shoulder and saw a vehicle behind her, but figured it was far enough away that she could manoeuvre out to pass the parked car.
Judge O’Dwyer said Menzies had failed to give the cyclist enough room.
As she went past, she was struck by Menzies, who then narrowly missed running her over after she fell into the lane of traffic.
Menzies had thought she had enough room to pass the cyclist before she reached the parked car. She slowed, and moved over to give the cyclist room and then saw oncoming traffic.
“Your assessment was you thought you would avoid her, but you didn’t,” Judge O’Dwyer said.
The force of the impact as she fell onto the road split her helmet in two, and after she was taken to hospital, she was diagnosed with a mild to severe concussion.
Menzies’ lawyer Dave Holloway said in mitigation that she had no previous convictions, had enjoyed a long career as a teacher, had stopped at the time and provided her phone number but had failed to notify police as required.
She was however fully co-operative once police contacted her, her licence had been suspended and was now revoked on medical grounds and she had entered guilty pleas once the matter was before the court.
“The convictions themselves will be significant. She has led a blameless life until now,” Holloway said.
He said Menzies had also engaged in the restorative justice process but had failed to attend the planned face-to-face meeting as she was ill at the time.
She had also just recently written an apology letter to the victim, plus had flowers and a gift voucher delivered to her.
No reparation was sought as insurance had covered the cost of damage to the victim’s bike and laptop which was in her school backpack at the time.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
