Neither driver slowed after a passing lane merged to allow the other in, with Brunt putting other road users at risk by failing to yield or let 19-year-old Armstrong pass, Judge Mika said.
Brunt and Armstrong were travelling south along State Highway 2 near Upper Hutt on November 14, 2020 when the crash claimed the teenager’s life and injured Caron and Mark Lancaster in the oncoming lane.
Armstrong was behind a vehicle in the left lane and Brunt was at the front of the queue on the right.
The two lanes would become one with a merging lane 100 metres from the lights but when both cars moved through the intersection north of Wellington, neither merged.
They travelled 400m, for 13 seconds, driving at 103km/h side by side before disaster struck.
The left front of Brunt’s vehicle collided with the rear right-side door of Armstrong’s Nissan, causing his car to spin into the northbound lane and collide with the Lancasters’ Toyota.
Armstrong died at the scene.
Lawyer Blake Dawson, acting on behalf of Brunt, said his client believed there had been a miscarriage of justice in her case and the District Court held her “to too high a standard”.
District Court Judge Mika determined last year Brunt’s actions were not the ones of a reasonable and prudent driver.
Dawson today submitted Brunt was acting within the road rules, and a reasonable and prudent driver isn’t a machine, but a human behind the wheel.
He submitted his client was reacting to a dangerous situation, and did not meet the threshold for carelessly driving.
“Mrs Brunt was in shock,” Dawson said. “[She] was concerned for her safety and the safety of her daughter.”
The consequences and stigma of the conviction outweighed a “momentary misjudgment”, Dawson said.
During the hearing at the Wellington High Court, Justice Francis Cooke agreed Brunt would have been in shock, but said it was a long time for someone not to slow down.
Justice Cooke described the fatal crash as a “tragic accident”.
Crown prosecutor Claire Hislop said she and Dawson agreed on the law, but the fact Brunt had right of way didn’t mean she wasn’t driving carelessly in the 13 seconds before the crash.
“She’s aware of him and she’s seen him but it’s the decision where she’s coming up to the merge and continues on... that’s where the carelessness arises,” Hislop said.
“A careful and prudent driver would have and could have acted differently in that situation.”
Hislop said the consequences of the conviction, and the stigma that was mentioned by Dawson, would naturally unfold as a result of the “tragic accident”.
Hislop conceded that 200 hours of community work was high, but that some community work was warranted.
Justice Cooke has reserved his decision which will be released at a later date.
