October 18, 2011

Crash driver admits manslaughter charge

By Anne Clarkson at Nga Hau e Wha marae

A young driver on a restricted licence has admitted a manslaughter charge for a crash that killed a woman passenger and injured a friend.

Timothy George Surynt, 21, pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter, reckless driving causing injury, and driving with excess breath-alcohol, at a Christchurch District Court session at the Nga Hau e Wha marae today.

Surynt had a restricted licence so he should not have had passengers or driven after 10pm. His licence only allowed him to drive automatic vehicles, and the car he was driving was manual. He underwent a breath test and it read 699mcg of alcohol to a litre of breath.

He was remanded on bail to an Ashburton High Court sentencing on December 1.

Judge Paul Kellar requested a pre-sentence report with a report to determine whether Surynt would be suitable for a home or community detention sentence.

He also gave Surynt the first warning under the three-strikes legislation that increases penalties for repeat violent offenders.

In April, Surynt met his friend Kyle McKerrow at Robbie?s Cranford, and they were both drinking. When it was closing they went to Robbie?s Elmwood, and Emma Jayne Ford went with them. Surynt offered to drive.

The Elmwood hotel was closed, so they decided to go to Harewood Tavern.

Surynt was speeding on Wairakei Road and failed to take a right-hand bend before Ilam Road, screeching the tyres around the bend. He crashed into the rear of a parked four-wheel-drive vehicle then carried on a short distance and hit a second parked vehicle. The impact caused both cars to be shunted forward, and his car rotated 180degrees and ended up on the opposite side of the road, facing the way they had come.

There was major damage to front and left hand side of the car, and the front left wheel arch was pushed against the tyre causing it to jam.

Surynt restarted the vehicle and drove back towards Idris Rd with the left hand wheel dragging along the road. He stopped at the intersection of Wairakei and Idris Roads and got out of the car.

McKerrow got out and sat on the steps of a flower shop, but Ford was unconscious and trapped in the rear of vehicle by her seatbelt.

Two doctors assisted, pulled her from the vehicle, and began resuscitation, but she did not regain consciousness and died from a ruptured aorta caused by the crash.

McKerrow had a ruptured spleen, fractured vertebrae, five broken ribs, a punctured lung and had surgery to insert screws into a fractured ankle, and a plate into a fractured shoulder blade. He was in a wheelchair for six weeks.

Surynt told police he did not feel intoxicated.