The death of a 23-year-old builder after a vehicle rolled on him on a farm track at Waitotara was a wakeup call to those members of the rural community who have a casual attitude to drinking and driving.
Coroner Tim Scott expressed this view in releasing his findings this week after he heard evidence on two occasions in the Coroners Court at Wanganui. The second hearing was on August 30.
Mr Scott found that alcohol played a part in Lower Hutt man Timothy Edward Turner's death on the night of May 20, 2009, as he stood spotlighting possums on the tray of an unwarranted Land Cruiser owned and driven by Grant Gibbard. Two other members in the hunting party of five who were staying for the weekend in a hut on the Waitotara farm were following the vehicle on quad bikes shooting the spotlit possums.
All five men had had plenty to drink that night before they went out spotlighting, Mr Scott said. Mr Gibbard and Mr Turner were both alcohol-impaired that night; the facts were a recipe for disaster.
Mr Turner's autopsy recorded a blood-alcohol limit of 127 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. Had he been driving a vehicle on a public road he would have been regarded as significantly impaired.
Police recorded a breath test of Mr Gibbard at 1.25am, four hours after the accident. At the hearing, Dr Stowell, an expert on breath and alcohol limits, gave evidence that Mr Gibbard on balance of probability was 500 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath - 25 per cent over what would have been the legal limit had he been driving on a public road.
Mr Gibbard worked on the Waitotara farm and was charged with dangerous driving causing Mr Turner's death. He pleaded not guilty in the Whanganui District Court and was acquitted.
Mr Gibbard was the oldest in the group and his attitude to alcohol and vehicles was a causative factor in the tragedy, Mr Scott said. At the time of the fatality Mr Gibbard had four convictions for drink-driving and a fifth pending was entered against him later, and by 2010 he had six convictions with the last being in August 2009.
In the context of the hearing, Mr Scott said Mr Gibbard set out to place the "most generous and advantageous interpretation upon [his drink-driving] as he could, and that he was fudging reality to suggest it was a product of more youthful times".
In his findings, Mr Scott said both Mr Turner and Mr Gibbard became distracted when they tried to converse, and Mr Gibbard lost control of the vehicle.
Mr Scott concluded that had any of the factors been absent, Mr Turner would not have died; had he been riding in the cab, especially with a seatbelt on; had he been riding in the cab wearing a seatbelt Mr Gibbard would not have been distracted, and had Mr Gibbard not been affected by alcohol, it is probable the crash would not have occurred.
Mr Turner died from a head injury with traumatic asphyxia.