Road toll leaves real story untold

Katherine Kennedy with her now 5-year-old son Matthew. Photo / Supplied

The brother of a woman killed in a head-on crash has spoken of the immense pain he felt seeing her young son afterwards.

"Words cannot describe the shock and grief we felt at seeing my sister lying dead, but worse was to see Matthew crying beside her body on the hospital bed," said Chris Kennedy.

At 12, the 2010 Easter road toll was the highest in 18 years and six more fatal crashes have followed this week. But statistics do not tell the tales of those left behind.

Katherine "Rin" Kennedy, 46, died in Whangarei Hospital hours after her Volkswagen Polo collided with a Nissan Navara south of Kerikeri in Northland last month.

Witnesses said wine spilled from the van and the scene reeked of alcohol after the 8am crash.

Shortly after, Mr Kennedy got the phone call he never wanted to receive.

"You never believe it will happen until it actually does," he said.

While racing to pick up 5-year-old Matthew from Riverview School - where he had started two weeks before - he got more gut-wrenching phone calls.

"Her injuries were unsurvivable, the little hope we had was extinguished," Mr Kennedy said.

Matthew understood his mother had gone but needed answers.

Where was he going to live and who was going to make his batman cape "now that mummy is dead".

The first has been answered - he has moved in with Mr Kennedy and his three young cousins.

The cape, however, remains unfinished. Ms Kennedy's sewing machines were out on the kitchen table the day of the crash.

The passionate seamstress - who developed several of her own clothing labels - was tutoring fashion in Invercargill when Matthew was con-ceived.

Her decision to raise the youngster on her own was typical of her strong, independent spirit, said friend Meredith Young.

"She decided the relationship wasn't going to stay together just because she got pregnant," she said, confident Matthew's father would step up and play a bigger role in his life.

On March 22, when the youngster should have been fighting baddies in his cape, he was sprinkling marigolds and rosemary on his mother's coffin.

"It was a tragedy to witness," said Belinda Nash.

"A boy lost his mother, a family lost their kin and I lost my darling friend Rin, and that hole will never be filled."

Mrs Young said a police officer who attended the crash had taken stress leave and the rescue crew was "deeply affected".

The local doctor who was first on the scene - trying desperately to save her - broke down on the way home.

Speaking to the Weekend Herald on condition of anonymity, he said he had attended road crashes for 30 years but "every now and then one gets under your skin".

The general practitioner was particularly affected by the contrast between "the two stupid idiots" whom he said "wiped out a perfectly innocent young lady".

"When you do see something like that you haven't got your guard up," he said.

The doctor felt "guilty" and "selfish" attending Ms Kennedy's funeral but said he felt compelled to know her.

"I went to find out who she was, simply because it had affected me so much," he said.

"My wife said it was a way of getting over it."

So did more than 300 others.

Friends and family crowded into Kerikeri's Kingston House, many spilling outside onto the lawn.

The Kennedys have been contacted by friends "Rin" touched all over the world.

Ms Nash said she felt like she had lost her innocence through her friend's death.

"Three weeks after the accident I have woken up a different person."

A 49-year-old man is due to appear in the Auckland District Court this month charged with two counts of driving while disqualified and breaching community work. Police are considering other charges.