This makes me mad

I'd like to point out from the text He said  (The Judges comment) she had pleaded guilty at ONE of the earliest opportunities  which infers it was not her first opportunity

I know you see it time and time again but as said this makes me mad.

Guess it just goes to show it’s not just in the UK where these injustices occur

It's just human nature to do dumb things, happens all over the world every day. Makes me sad rather than mad.

she had pleaded guilty at ONE of the earliest opportunities which infers it was not her first opportunity

She would have been following a lawyer's advice which is what anyone should do regardless of guilt or innocence.

The bit that always irritates me is:

the hit-and-run death of a beloved father and husband last year.

So, if it was a homeless drug addict with no friends or family, it wouldn't be as serious?

She would have been following a lawyer’s advice which is what anyone should do regardless of guilt or innocence.

She MAY have been.

The bit that always irritates me is:

the hit-and-run death of a beloved father and husband last year.

So, if it was a homeless drug addict with no friends or family, it wouldn’t be as serious?

Thats stuff always bugs me aswell.

I think my outrage was more associated with the sentence of 8 months home detention  which is absolutely not appropriate considering her actions destroyed a family

How can you create a deterrent against such behaviour when the sentencing is so powder puff

the hit-and-run death of a beloved father and husband last year.
So, if it was a homeless drug addict with no friends or family, it wouldn’t be as serious?

Really? REALLY?

The journalist is reporting what was said in the court. If the victim was a homeless drug addict, they would have found an angle to humanise them.

Shouldn't we be encouraging drivers to see cyclists as fellow human beings?

Your irritation is wildly misplaced.

I think my outrage was more associated with the sentence of 8 months home detention  which is absolutely not appropriate considering her actions destroyed a family

im not sure exactly what she was convicted of, clearly road traffic law in the UK will not be directly comparable to NZ but it reads like she was convicted of failing to stop at the scene of an accident rather than causing the death.  If she had admitted drink driving, causing death by driving whilst drunk and leaving the scene in the U.K. she would have almost certainly seen the inside of a prison.  If she had only been convicted of failing to stop at the scene of (a very serious) an accident - the sentence would probably have been similar to this - although I don’t know what home detention entails in NZ.

How can you create a deterrent against such behaviour when the sentencing is so powder puff

you can never create a 100% deterrent against any crime - even in countries with the death penalty people still commit murder.  Your statement suggests that YOU would be willing to drive drunk in NZ and not stop if you have an accident because the personal consequences would be low?  I suspect that’s not really the case.  Equally it seems if the offender in this case had believed that if she drove home she was at a high chance of significant damage to her car, getting 8 months home detention +$10k fine and 18 month ban with her picture splashed across the news she would not have driven.  Like most driving offences she thought she would probably get away with it, indeed if he hadn’t been lying on the road she probably would have.  If you want a deterrent you need to have a realistic prospect of being caught, all the times when your driving is bad but nobody dies.

for those speculating on “when and why” she pled guilty it does appear that she handed herself in to the police after media reports of the fatality.  I wouldn’t read too much into the judge’s “one of the earliest” comments.

Once they've failed to stop at the scene they've outed themselves as a first-class bastard and I'd prefer that zero credit was offered for the particular time that they deign to come forward after that.  I also wish there could be a presumption of intoxication (or rather, an automatic failure to provide a relevant sample) added to the conviction.

The journalist is reporting what was said in the court

It wasn't in quotation marks.

A very horrible story, but did anyone else read this line and think WTF?

“The exact position of the victim prior to the collision is not known, scene analysis indicates he was either laying down on the road or laying partially in the road,” the summary states.

I'd assumed this was cycling related, but now cant see a single reference to bikes or cycling in the article.

“The exact position of the victim prior to the collision is not known, scene analysis indicates he was either laying down on the road or laying partially in the road,” the summary states.
I’d assumed this was cycling related, but now cant see a single reference to bikes or cycling in the article.

I seem to remember someone being killed in North Wales (nr Pwllheli iirc?) last year maybe, and the report was that he was lying in the road in the middle of the night when the car drove over him.

That is horrific, he looks such a nice chap.

This perpetrator deserves a lifetime of PTSD as the sentence is a joke.

As ever, there's a lot of detail and context missing from the news report that the judge had full details of before following the NZ sentencing guidelines.

Him lying in the road would fit with her story of thinking she hit a pothole, especially on a rural road (one assumes not perfect condition?) which would lend weight to why she didn’t stop.

To be clear. She was drunk so don’t assume this as sympathy, more as to a reason why the sentence was reached.

IMO putting the families statements in the news article is to drum up exactly the response we have here.