A suspended and intoxicated driver’s behaviour became “increasingly dangerous” before he crashed his mechanically unsafe car into a truck, killing his best mate.

A coroner says that Tangaroa Paki crossed to the wrong side of the road, exceeded speed limits, briefly lost control of his vehicle, yet continued to accelerate while driving around Tauranga on the night of December 27, 2023.

He then drove into an intersection at Mount Maunganui against a light that had been red for 11 seconds, and crashed into a Kenworth truck and trailer unit.

His friend and front-seat passenger, Brayden Kenneth Tawa, 27, a father-of-two of Pāpāmoa, suffered blunt force injuries and died at the scene.

Paki had been drinking and using cannabis that day, and Tawa knew it.

“Never get into a vehicle with an impaired driver,” Coroner Ian Telford said in a findings report released today after he investigated Tawa’s death.

Brayden Tawa. Photo / Facebook

Paki later pleaded guilty to and was convicted of drugged driving causing injury and death.

In May this year, he was sent to prison for three years and six months, and disqualified from driving for four years.

Coroner Telford said that Paki, Brayden Tawa and Watene Tawa, Brayden’s brother, had been at a tangi that day, and CCTV footage showed them making several trips to a bottle store.

Paki consumed alcohol and cannabis during the day.

Later, more than two hours after the crash, he was found to have THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, in his blood at three times the “high-risk” level.

The blood sample also suggested that at the time of the collision, he would have had a blood-alcohol level of 50 to 90 milligrams per 100 millilitres. The legal limit is 50.

“The combined effects of alcohol and cannabis were considered a contributing factor to Mr Paki’s impaired and dangerous driving.”

The coroner said that Paki’s driving licence was suspended at the time, and he was on bail for a previous charge of driving while suspended.

His unregistered and unwarranted Subaru Impreza was in an unsafe mechanical condition, including brake defects and “significant structural rust”.

It had a bald front tyre and inadequate rear tyre pressure.

Paki knew it was unroadworthy.

In addition to Brayden Tawa’s death, Watene Tawa and the truck driver suffered significant injuries in the crash. Paki was also injured.

“Cases like Mr Tawa’s are seen by coroners with alarming regularity. Each represents a needless and entirely preventable death,” Coroner Telford said.

“The human cost of these crashes extends beyond the whānau and loved ones left behind to the many others drawn into their aftermath, including other road users, first responders, police and other emergency service personnel.”

Tangaroa Paki in the High Court at Hamilton during his sentencing on charges of drug driving causing injury and death after the crash which killed Brayden Tawa. Photo / Belinda Feek

The coroner said that Brayden Tawa had been with his mates drinking alcohol and using cannabis earlier, and it was “highly unlikely” that he did not know Paki was intoxicated when he was driving them around town.

“I do not say this to lay blame. I say this because there is an important and recurring lesson in these cases: the driver was intoxicated and others knew it,” he said.

“Never drive if you are impaired by alcohol or drugs. It can cause death or serious injury to you or others.

“Never get into a vehicle with an impaired driver.

“If someone is about to drive impaired, do everything you can to stop them,” Coroner Telford said.

Tawa had two children, aged 4 and 6 at the time he died.

Both wrote victim impact statements, with help from their mother, which were read in the High Court at Hamilton when Paki was sentenced in May.

“Why didn’t you just stop at the red light when you realised it was the truck’s turn to go?” his daughter asked Paki in her statement.

“Why didn’t you just wait for the truck to go?”

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.

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