The scene of a multiple vehicle accident on the Hawke's Bay Expressway in February 2024. Caleb Baker (inset) died in the accident. Main photo / Crown Law Office
The family of a young man killed when a phone-distracted truckie ran into the back of his work ute say her release after serving just nine months in prison is “impossible to comprehend”.
Truck driver Sarah Hope Schmidt was released from Arohata Women’s Prison roughly one-third of the way through her jail sentence of two years and four months for killing Caleb Baker and injuring another motorist.
Baker’s uncle, Shane Taurima, said learning that Schmidt was out on parole was “deeply shocking and retraumatising”.
“We’re devastated. Nine months for taking a life is impossible to comprehend,” he said.
“The pain of losing him never leaves us.”
Schmidt, 25, was a truck driver who spent 44 minutes using her phone during a two-hour run between Dannevirke and Napier Port in the early morning of February 9, 2024.
After starting on her return journey down the Hawke’s Bay Expressway, she was still using her phone when she ploughed her 30-tonne Volvo truck into the back of Baker’s Toyota Hilux, which was at the rear of a stationary queue of traffic.
In the 16 seconds before the collision, a dashboard camera captured Schmidt looking at her phone on 10 separate occasions, for between half a second and two seconds at a time.
She looked down at her phone four times in the final six seconds.
Today, the coroner’s report into Baker’s death was released.
In it, Coroner Mark Wilton made a plea for drivers to refrain from using handheld phones while driving.
“I … strongly urge those drivers that continue doing so, to stop,” he said.
Schmidt was still using her phone two seconds before the crash, when she was travelling at 86km/h.
Although she then applied the brakes, it was too late, and she was moving at 76km/h when her truck, laden with a shipping container, ran into the back of Baker’s ute.
Baker, 22, a talented rugby player who worked for Fulton Hogan as a specialist operator, died at the scene from multiple blunt force injuries. He was only 4km from his home.
His vehicle was shunted into a Holden Captiva, which in turn was pushed forward into the back of a light truck. The Holden driver was injured.
Schmidt pleaded guilty to two charges of dangerous driving – one each of causing death and injury.
She was sentenced in the Napier District Court in November last year to two years and four months in prison.
However, a Parole Board report released to NZME shows that Schmidt was released from Arohata Women’s Prison on July 15.
Her end sentence date was February 16, 2027.
The Parole Board said that Schmidt, a first offender, was “clearly and visibly upset” when she appeared before the panel on July 1, having completed 22 sessions with a psychologist.
“The impression was that she is genuinely remorseful for what she has done,” Parole Board panel convenor Ann-Marie Beveridge said.
“Ms Schmidt herself did not realise the extent that she was using her phone until she was told after the offence.”
Beveridge said that what had happened was “incredibly tragic” but the board was satisfied that Schmidt would not pose any “undue risk” while on parole.
Her parole would run until her statutory release date, with conditions to continue with counselling.
“In directing Ms Schmidt’s release on parole we do not diminish the seriousness of the offending and we acknowledge the immeasurable loss to the victim, his family and friends,” Beveridge said.
“We wish Ms Schmidt well for her future. We know it is going to be a long journey and we hope that she is able to make peace with what has happened.”
In his report into the circumstances of Baker’s death, Coroner Wilton said people continued to use their mobile phones while driving, despite it being illegal.
He said driving was an activity which required full attention.
“Such [mobile phone] use places other motorists, road users and members of the public at significant risk of harm and injury, or death, as seen here in Mr Baker’s case,” he said.
“I particularly note that at least one other death has occurred in a motor vehicle crash since Mr Baker’s death, where another truck driver was distracted when using a mobile phone while driving,” the coroner said.
Shane Taurima said Baker’s whānau were “blindsided” to learn from a reporter last week that Schmidt had been freed.
They had not been contacted by police, the Parole Board, or the Department of Corrections.
“We have always respected the justice process, but this experience has left us questioning how victims and their whānau are treated,” Taurima said.
“Caleb was only 22. He had his whole future ahead of him.
“This decision has left our whānau heartbroken and questioning whether victims and their families truly matter in this system.”
Schmidt has been disqualified from driving for three years.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.