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Hamish McNeilly / Stuff
Luke Savigny appears in Dunedin Superior Court.
A grieving mother lifted the shoes and cap her son was wearing on the day of his death to remind the man who killed him how much he meant to his family.
Luke Savigny, who has never had a driver’s license, was drunk and had methamphetamine in his system when he borrowed a Holden Commodore on March 21, 2020.
Police tried to arrest him, but he crashed in Oamaru shortly after, killing his 32-year-old passenger, Christopher Narayan Blair.
Savigny, 25, appeared in Dunedin Superior Court to be sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
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Blair’s mother, Vicky, showed a photo of her son on the court, along with the shoes and hat he was wearing on the day of the accident and his favorite jersey: a Michael Jordan basketball jersey.
Blair also showed a photo of her grandson, Tyrone, 12, who now had no father.
Tyrone had never seen a corpse until he saw his father after the accident. She asked her grandmother why the driver didn’t stop, Vicki Blair said.
“We are heartbroken by the way Chris was taken.”
Her son was not an angel, but he did not deserve to die that way, and it would be a long time before the knife was taken from his family’s heart, he said.
“The pain never ends, but it changes.”
Graeme Blair questioned the “senseless violent death” of her son and said she wondered what he was thinking as Savigny fled the police.
Savigny’s actions “led directly to the death of our son,” he said.
Judge Jan-Marie Doogue thanked Blair’s family for their remarks.
John Kirk-Anderson / Stuff
Luke Savigny has been jailed for causing the death of his friend in an accident on Oamaru.
She noted that their lives had been forever affected by Savigny’s actions.
There was some evidence that Blair encouraged him to drive recklessly, but Savigny was the driver and responsible for his actions, the judge said.
The court heard that the men were friends and Savigny had met with Blair’s family to apologize for what happened.
On the morning of the fatal accident, several motorists reported seeing Savigny speeding through the roadworks and overtaking dangerously.
Police tried to stop him near Alma, south of Oamaru, but he gave up the pursuit due to excessive speed.
Savigny later crashed at the intersection of Severn and Wansbeck streets in Oamaru. The impact split the car in half.
A police investigation found that the car was traveling at 150 km / h when the accident occurred, and then drugs, including methamphetamine, were found in Savigny’s blood.
Blair was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown about 15 meters from the vehicle.
Savigny said he was extremely intoxicated and did not remember driving the vehicle.
His attorney, Anne Stevens QC, said he had a low intellect and attention deficit disorder, which affected his decision-making, as did his drug and alcohol abuse.
Savigny did not react when he was sentenced to five years and seven months in jail, with a minimum period of three years without parole.
“A driver’s license is a privilege, not a right,” Judge Doogue told him.
She noted that Savigny’s driving record was “appalling” and said she was lucky not to have killed anyone else.
She disqualified him from having a driver’s license for eight years.
