Drunk driver who killed pregnant Northland teen in jail

A Northland man who killed a pregnant teenager after colliding with a parked car at nearly four times the driving alcohol limit was jailed for four years and six months.

Ioakimi Sale, 43, of Moerewa, was also disqualified from driving for six years by Judge John McDonald in Kaikohe District Court on Thursday.

The sentence, Sale’s seventh for driving under the influence, comes after he pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol on his breath that caused the death of 18-year-old Nga Roimata Beattie-Rihari.

Sale also pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident without verifying if anyone was injured and violating an order under the Health Act to isolate at home. The accident occurred during the Covid-19 level 4 lockdown.

Beattie-Rihari was sitting in a car parked on Mason Ave, Moerewa, when she was struck from behind by Sale’s vehicle at around 7.45pm on April 19 this year.

Sale was traveling at high speed and was on the wrong side of the road when the accident occurred.

Both Beattie-Rihari and her unborn baby, Pryncess Diana, died in the impact.
His vehicle was deflected back against a concrete power pole as Sale’s vehicle rolled onto the curb and stopped against a house. Sale then fled the scene.

Sale blew a breath alcohol level of 942 micrograms per liter, nearly four times the legal limit of 250 mcg / L, when he was located by police.

Judge McDonald acknowledged Roimata’s whanau and said that “he always took into account his loss, his words from the victim’s impact statements, the tragic avoidable loss of his loved one and his unborn child.”

Judge McDonald said on April 19 that Sale lived in Moerewa and began drinking alcohol around lunchtime. By 4 in the afternoon it was over.

Instead of going to bed and sleeping, he got in his car and bought more alcohol. He then returned home where he continued to consume alcohol.

Later that night, he got into his car and accelerated hard, causing the vehicle to travel at high speed, zigzagging and swerving down Mason Ave.

“No one else was in the way, you had all the way to safely negotiate,” Judge McDonald said.

Unfortunately, Ms. Beattie-Rihari was sitting in the driver’s seat of her vehicle talking to a friend. They were legally parked on the side of the road. They both saw their vehicle coming. Her friend got out of the car because she could see what was going to happen. ”

Beattie couldn’t do that and her car crashed into the Mazda at high speed … and came into contact with a concrete power pole.

“They threw her from the vehicle onto the road and as a result she died.

“She died of a severe head injury, five months pregnant with a girl I had already named. Instead of stopping, you continued … before stopping. You didn’t come out to see if you hurt someone.

“You acted like a mere spectator who stumbled upon a scene. You were tremendously drunk, tremendously intoxicated.”

Judge McDonald said Sale, who had six prior drunk driving convictions, has “stolen from a whanau member whom he loved deeply.”

“For too long, repeat drunk drivers kill innocent people on our roads.”

About 30 family and friends attended the sentencing, some of whom wore T-shirts that read Queen Roimata and Prince Diana.

READ MORE:
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• Triple fatality on Northland Highway – Emergency services on site
• A serious accident closes part of the road in Northland
• One person died in a serious accident in Northland, State Highway 1 was closed

Victim impact statements read by the family and a Victim Support representative said Sale’s actions had “devastated the whanau and shattered their hearts.”

They spoke of a vibrant young woman with her whole life ahead of her who loved to sing, who worked at Copthorne Waitangi, and who attended church regularly.

She was a role model in the community working as a youth leader.

In a statement, her mother said two lives were claimed on April 19.

“It feels like a hole in my heart, my daughter was such a beautiful girl. She was an innocent victim sitting in a parked car eating popcorn.”

“She didn’t get a chance to experience being a mother for the first time, you took it from her,” said another family member.

“There will be no first Christmas or first birthday with our moko. You took it from us.”