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Hamish McNeilly / Stuff
A female passenger and male driver of a car were killed after a head-on collision between a car and truck on State Highway 1 in East Taieri-Allanton, near Dunedin, on March 31, 2017.
A woman overheard on the phone as her friend urged the driver of the car she was in to watch the road, minutes before they both died after crashing head-on into a truck.
A coroner’s report has revealed the final moments before a double fatality, which claimed the lives of Erica Kay Ward, 27, and Cody James Cowie, 24.
The couple died after the car they were in crossed the center line, striking a truck on State Highway 1, south of Dunedin, around 2.55 am on March 31, 2017.
Cowie, who had a young daughter, had driven to Milton, South Otago, with Ward, who had three young daughters and a wife who was a mutual friend.
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Cowie was driving his friend’s car and the trio grabbed a case of beer and a case of RTD bourbon and started drinking at another friend’s house.
The couple’s mutual friend later told police, “The next thing I did was get off the ground.”
” I looked out the window and could see the taillights of my car driving down the road.
Facebook / Supplied
Erica Ward died after the car she was in collided head-on with a truck.
“I was really mad because they abandoned me.”
The woman had numerous bruises on her body and told police that she may have fought the couple for driving home drunk.
Another friend received a text message from Ward, saying, “How much gas do you have?”
Her friend telephoned Ward, who was walking down the street near Waihola, and “she was crying, she sounded upset about something.”
He heard a car pull up next to Ward and the call ended.
But at 2.15 am she received a text message from Ward urging her to “call me”, and another message 12 minutes later.
The woman called Ward, who answered, and heard that Ward was having a conversation with another man.
“At one point I heard the car swerve or a noise similar to a tire and Erica said, ‘watch out’ or ‘watch out for the man on the road,'” the woman said of the six-minute call.
Approximately 20 minutes later, a truck carrying a 48-ton load was heading south toward East Taieri, when the truck driver saw a car approaching down the northbound lane with its lights on.
FACEBOOK / Supplied
Cody Cowie was killed in a car accident near Mosgiel on Friday, March 31.
As the car approached, it swerved into the truck and despite the truck driver trying to do so, he crashed into the car.
He called emergency services, and paramedics found Ward dead at the scene, while Cowie had to be released.
They pulled him out of the rubble at 4 a.m. and he died shortly after.
A police report found that the truck driver braked at least 29 meters before the collision, but there was no evidence that the car, which was estimated to be traveling at around 110 km / h, had braked at all.
Cowie was wearing a seat belt, but Ward was not.
“It is not unreasonable to consider, if [she] He was wearing a seat belt, he may have survived the accident, ” the accident report says.
Police concluded that the accident was caused by the car crossing the center line into the direct path of the truck. Cannabis and alcohol were contributing factors.
Freshly cut cannabis plant was also found in the vehicle, and the origin of these plants is unknown.
Hamish McNeilly / Stuff
A cordon blocks traffic from Gladfield Rd, near Dunedin, after two people were killed in an accident.
A toxicology report found alcohol in Cowie’s blood of 134 milligrams per 100 milliliters. The legal limit is 50 mg per 100 ml of blood.
Other drugs were also found in his system, including benzodiazepine.
Cowie died of cardiovascular shock after sustaining multiple injuries in the accident.
Ward, who was also found with alcohol and drugs in her system, died of fatal traumatic injuries in the accident.
Coroner Marcus Elliott said that given the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and the importance of wearing a seatbelt had been widely publicized, he made no recommendations.
He extended his condolences to both families.
