“I know I could not have been there. I know I could not have stopped what happened. But grief does not listen to reason.”
Olawande, 36, was hit by the GoBay public bus on Tennyson St in central Napier while walking to work at the Ministry for Social Development on April 17 this year.
The bus driver, Alma George Randell, 72, later admitted a charge of careless driving causing death and was sentenced today to a mixed sentence of community work and community detention.
Olawande was four months pregnant when she died and mother to an 8-year-old boy, Imole.
Segun Braimoh said that when Imole heard his mother had been taken to hospital, the child texted her to say he hoped she would return with the baby brother he had been told was coming.
“That was his hope. That was what his little 8-year-old mind was expecting,” Segun said.
“He thought she was coming home with her new son. She never came home. Neither did his baby brother.”
Segun Braimoh described Olawande, commonly known as Wande, as “a person who brought joy and happiness into the lives of the people around her”.
She had been due to start studying for a master’s degree in social sciences in July.
In addition to being a “beautiful wife” and mother, she was a daughter, sister, friend and a servant to her church and community.
The family moved to Hawke’s Bay from Nigeria in 2023.
Olawande Braimoh, 36, was four months pregnant when she was hit by a bus in Napier. Photo / RNZ
When Segun arrived at Hawke’s Bay Hospital after being told about the accident, he was informed by a police officer that his wife had died.
“I remember collapsing on to the ground. I remember refusing to believe it. I remember the most unimaginable searing pain in my heart I’d ever felt,” he said.
“When I was taken to see her, I called her name. I called her name again and again.
“I prayed that somehow she would hear me and open her eyes. But she was gone.”
Defence counsel Matt Phelps said Randell was haunted by what happened that day and would carry the burden of it for the rest of his life.
“He very much understands the catastrophic consequences of his actions,” he said.
Judge Richard Earwaker said Randell was a first-time offender and a man who had spent the best part of his life serving the community.
He served in the Navy for 20 years and was a Corrections officer for 19.
Judge Earwaker said Randell drove on to the intersection under a green light and Olawande was crossing on a green signal.
However, Randell did not heed a sign requiring turning traffic to give way to pedestrians and when he struck Olawande he momentarily hit the accelerator in a “panic response” before applying the brake.
Intersection was ‘notoriously dangerous’
A person who was on the footpath when Olawande was hit by the bus, and who lived and worked in the area, earlier told a reporter the intersection where it happened is “notoriously dangerous”.
She said pedestrians could only get halfway across the road before traffic was given a green light to turn into Tennyson St.
Napier City Council has received complaints about the intersection and was looking at changing the crossing light settings to give pedestrians more time in the months before Olawande’s death.
They have since been extended by 10 seconds.
In court, Segun said in his victim impact statement that Randell’s carelessness had lifelong consequences for Olawande’s family, and they would still be serving a sentence long after his had ended.
There would always be an empty place at their table and someone missing from their family photographs.
“There will always be a boy who wonders what his mother would have been like, watching him grow up,” Segun said.
“And there will always be a husband who wishes he could hear one more phone call from the woman he loved.
“Just one more time, to hear her say, ‘I love you’ and to tell her ‘I love you too’.
“I would give anything to hear and say those words again.”
Randell resigned from GoBay following the tragedy.
Judge Earwaker sentenced Randell to 220 hours of community work and two months of community detention with a night-time curfew.
He also imposed an order for emotional harm and reparation of $12,000, an amount that took into account Randell’s ability to pay.
“No amount of money is ever going to be able to compensate for a loss of a life,” he said.
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.
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