Geoffrey and Karen Boucher were crossing State Highway 2 in July 2022 when they were struck and killed by a motorcyclist. A man has been charged with manslaughter and is on trial in the High Court at Rotorua.
Geoffrey and Karen Boucher were crossing State Highway 2 in July 2022 when they were struck and killed by a motorcyclist. A man has been charged with manslaughter and is on trial in the High Court at Rotorua.
Geoffrey and Karen Boucher were killed when they were struck by a motorcycle while crossing State Highway 2 in July 2022.
A 60-year-old man with interim name suppression is being tried for manslaughter in the High Court at Rotorua.
The Crown claims he was speeding and didn’t stop at the light. His lawyer says the pedestrian crossing is “inherently dangerous”.
“In the absence of him failing to stop for the red light, we wouldn’t be here.”
But whether the motorcyclist could see the red signal before he fatally rode into two pedestrians, who were using a traffic-light controlled crossing, has been hotly disputed at his trial.
Throughout yesterday and today, a crash investigator gave evidence that the defendant’s failure to stop had caused the collision, and the speed he was travelling, and his cutting lanes on the Bethlehem roundabout to maintain that speed, were “contributing factors” to his failure to stop.
The investigator, Senior Constable Christopher Hills, didn’t consider the crossing “inherently dangerous”, with visibility problems, as the defence suggested in its opening statement.
A 60-year-old man is facing manslaughter charges for the death of Geoffrey and Karen Boucher after his motorcycle struck them on a pedestrian crossing in 2022.
The defence points to both the proximity of the crossing to the roundabout, and the visibility of the crossing, as issues that make it dangerous.
On the evening of the fatal crash, on July 22, 2022, the defence says the crossing was even less visible than usual.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield, KC, produced evidence from the Tauranga City Council that an overhead traffic light that was usually there had been removed before the collision.
Hills had earlier said, under cross-examination by Mansfield, that he was at the collision scene for “several hours”, and was satisfied the five traffic light boards, including the overhead, were visible for a reasonable distance before the crossing, including on the roundabout itself.
He didn’t accept that the crossing needed more visual markers, as the traffic lights were the main signal motorists needed for traffic-light controlled pedestrian crossings, which should be treated no differently to any other traffic light intersection.
He said there was also the visual cue provided by the change of speed limit from 80km/h to 50km/h, which occurred before entering the Bethlehem roundabout.
Hills said that with the four traffic light boards next to the crossing, two on each side, and the one overhanging central board, a prudent motorist or motorcycle rider would be able to see them.
But Mansfield pointed to the council’s confirmation that the mastarm for the central board had been damaged in May 2022, and that light board had been removed.
Ron Mansfield, KC, is representing a motorcyclist charged with manslaughter in trial in the High Court at Rotorua.
The mastarm wasn’t replaced until August 2022, and the light board itself replaced in February 2023, according to the council’s records.
Hills conceded he must have made an error in his recollection of there being five operational boards that night.
He maintained the remaining four boards were still visible, and were positioned at different heights and angles to aid visibility, and the missing board hadn’t made the crossing dangerous.
However, the defence argues that the rider may have been confused by a further overhanging central light, that was further ahead on another traffic-light controlled pedestrian crossing.
Mansfield also said the defence’s expert report said that an LED billboard to the left of the crossing made it hard to see the lower lights.
Hills had earlier accepted there was “visual noise”, but said that was a known hazard, as were things like sunstrike, which required a motorist to adapt to and respond accordingly.
An analysis of speed
During his evidence in chief, Hills stepped the jury through the crash scene − including his identification of scuff marks at the point of impact, and other markings on the road to indicate the direction of travel of both the bike and the pedestrians.
A large portion of his evidence then focused on the timings, as seen on the CCTV footage.
At 20.29.34, on the evening of the crash, the Bouchers stepped out onto State Highway 2 near Tauranga.
At the same moment, the motorcyclist was halfway through the Bethlehem roundabout that led to the crossing.
Bethlehem pedestrian crossing where Geoffrey and Karen Boucher were killed. Photo / Mead Norton
The light had been red for four seconds, allowing a margin for motorists to stop before pedestrians were signalled to cross.
About four seconds after starting to cross, eight seconds after the lights changed, the pedestrians were struck.
Karen Boucher was sent flying and hit the wire fence on the left-hand side of the road.
Geoffrey Boucher was dragged under the bike which travelled forward and to the right, and came to a stop on top of him.
Hills analysed CCTV footage which captured the journey the motorcyclist had taken – from the Parkvale suburb of Tauranga to 15th Avenue, along the expressway and then up to the Bethlehem roundabout – and said his assessment was that the rider had been travelling over the speed limit.
His analysis had the rider travelling an average of 30km/h over the speed limit on the expressway section of the road. He estimated an average of 35km/h over as he entered the roundabout.
Hills had his estimated average speed in the seconds before the collision at 72.8km/h, just over 20km/h above the posted speed limit of 50km/h. He accepted this was an estimate, as a precise speed couldn’t be calculated from CCTV footage.
In cross-examination, Mansfield put to Hills that other than travelling over the speed limit, the rider had been following all other traffic signals and road rules.
Hills accepted that, but noted the rider had done some lane changing on the roads, which were quiet that night, without appearing to signal.
The defence accepts the rider was speeding, but does not accept that was the only factor that contributed to the crash.
The trial before Justice Gwyn continues.
HannahBartlettis a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.
