Lapse tears family apart
Scott Buckley didn’t see the oncoming car as he turned into a driveway.
What followed was an ‘‘utterly horrendous situation’’.
His vehicle smashed head-on into the oncoming car on rural Waverley Rd between Hamilton and Morrinsville, ending one life and turning several more upside down.
In the other vehicle, a sevenyear-old boy saw the aftermath of his grandfather’s death, and his mother’s and grandmother’s injuries. His mum still asks herself: ‘‘What if I hadn’t gone back for my wallet?’’
Scott Kevin Buckley, 47, was charged with careless driving causing death and two counts of careless driving causing injury over the crash in October 2020.
It’s an ‘‘utterly horrendous situation for all involved’’, Community Magistrate Ngaire Mascelle said at Buckley’s sentencing in Hamilton District Court.
She sentenced him to 160 hours of community work, disqualified him from driving for nine months, and ordered him to pay the $13,000 offered in reparation.
Buckley is deeply remorseful, defence counsel Thomas Sutcliffe said.
‘‘We’re talking about ... a moment’s inattention, that we’re all susceptible to, but in most cases it doesn’t end in tragedy.’’
The crash – about 3.15pm on October 17, 2020 – was one of the tragic cases. Buckley was driving on the straight, bitumen-sealed Waverley Rd, and turned across the northbound lane heading for a driveway, the court heard this month.
He didn’t see a car carrying the Byrne family coming the other way, and its driver had no time to react. The head-on collision killed Gregory Robert Byrne, whom Mascelle said was clearly muchloved.
His wife Karen Lee Byrne spent almost a month in hospital with injuries including broken ribs, a collapsed left lung, and a fractured tailbone. Their daughter Kaye Louise Byrne spent 10 days in hospital, and her sevenyear-old son wasn’t injured but witnessed the aftermath of the crash.
Kaye’s victim impact statement, which was read in court, described survivor’s guilt, and seeing her father take his last breath and being unable to say goodbye. ‘‘I ask myself over and over, what if? If I didn’t go back for my wallet, if we were five minutes earlier or later?’’
She has nightmares, can’t drive on open roads, and suffered back pain and the aggravation of a pre-existing leg condition. Her son asks for his grandad daily, and she knows she can’t take her mother’s pain away.
‘‘We hate the mistake that took my husband from us,’’ Karen wrote in her victim impact statement. ‘‘I can’t forgive [Buckley] until I heal myself. I don’t want to go on with life and not forgive.’’
Her injuries cost her independence, and she’s still not sure when she will be able to return to work.’’
Concussion and hearing loss related to the crash are ongoing effects, and she needed abdominal surgery because her stomach was ‘‘ripped apart by the seatbelt’’.
Buckley told police he hadn’t seen the other vehicle, and the court heard he thought shadows from nearby trees may have affected visibility. Buckley had since arranged and paid for an arborist to top the trees, Sutcliffe said.
He’d also offered reparation, showing ‘‘a willingness to do at least something to ease the burdens on that family’’.
Buckley accepted responsibility early and had made no excuses, Mascelle said.
‘‘You have nothing of this ilk in your convictions history. You’re a man of very good character.’’