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Leonard Bagley says that waking up from a coma and finding out that his wife had died was like someone taking his heart and breaking it.
It was incredibly painful not to say goodbye, she said.
Leonard, his wife Emma and their two children were in the family car on a suburban Invercargill street when they were attacked by a car traveling at 121km / h on December 7, 2018.
Taine Reupena Tata Bryn Edwards, 22, who was a passenger in the car that collided with the Bagley, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for being a party to involuntary manslaughter and simultaneous sentences of 18 months for each of the three in recklessness. driving charges when he appeared before Judge Cameron Mander in Invercargill Superior Court on Wednesday.
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The crown prosecutor read Leonard’s victim impact statement while standing next to her.
“I have lost the love of my life, and my children to their mother, due to the selfish actions of another person.”
He felt it was a blatant disregard for human life, one he could not forgive.
His own injuries from the accident were extensive and included a fractured and dislocated spine and shoulders, a fractured pelvis and tailbone, a ruptured diaphragm, a collapsed lung, and extensive bleeding into the chest cavity.
Dejay Rawiri Kane, 21, who was the driver of the vehicle, admitted to involuntary manslaughter and four reckless driving charges and was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail in 2019.
Robyn Edie / Stuff
The intersection at Newcastle and Clifton streets, Invercargill, where the serious accident occurred in 2018.
Edwards was found guilty in the September trial of this year.
During Edwards’ trial and Kane’s sentencing, the courts heard that both men were intoxicated at the time of the accident.
Judge Mander said Edwards as the passenger and Kane as the driver played chicken or Russian roulette as the car sped past the signs before the accident.
Vehicular homicide involving alcohol, speed and dangerous driving was an all too common crime, Judge Mander said.
Often it was young men who did not seem to appreciate the serious risk of mixing alcohol and motor vehicles, the judge said.
Robyn Edie / Stuff
Taine Reupena Tata Bryn Edwards at her sentencing in Invercargill Superior Court on Wednesday.
Edwards’s presence in the car was a persistent encouragement for Kane to drive as he did, Judge Mander said.
The car went through a series of yield signs before colliding with the Bagleys at the intersection of Clifton and Newcastle streets in Windsor, Invercargill.
Russian roulette ended, almost inevitably, with the death of an innocent person traveling with the right of way on a connecting street, Judge Mander said.
Edwards’ attorney, Fiona Guy Kidd, said not a day goes by that she doesn’t think about the Bagleys.
Edwards had offered to withdraw all of the $ 12,000 from his Kiwisaver account as repair payment.
He had conducted a driving program, which exposed repeated alcoholic, dangerous and disqualified drivers to confrontational material, Guy Kidd said.
Things
The scene of an accident in Windsor, Invercargill, which claimed the life of nurse Emma Bagley in December 2018.
Wednesday was the second time in two years that Emma’s father, Bruce Duncan, appeared in court and read a statement on the victim’s impact on behalf of his family.
Her daughter and her husband made law-abiding decisions that night; Kane and Edwards didn’t, Duncan said.
Emma and Leonard were sober, licensed, and abiding by the speed limit.
“Some people continue to make very bad and dangerous decisions, without considering the consequences as a result,” Duncan said.
Emma died in the intensive care unit at Southland Hospital the day after the accident.
Duncan took his daughter’s hands, surrounded by Emma’s colleagues.
“To think that all this could have been so different. If only I had made a more responsible and law-abiding decision on December 7, 2018. ”
Judge Mander also disqualified Edwards from driving for three years and ordered a payment of $ 12,000 in emotional damages.
