As captain of an iconic ship, Tim Grant helped deliver life skills to youth and in his spare time wrote poetry celebrating his love for the Far North.
Even in his final moments, the 63-year-old was helping someone else. While fixing a neighbour’s letterbox, he was hit by a vehicle flying through the air, driven by Raymond Craig Strange, who lost control coming around a bend.
Two years later, Strange, 51, admitted dangerous driving causing death and avoided prison with home detention at his sentencing in the Kaikohe District Court.
For months, Grant’s family sat through every court appearance as Strange denied the charge and sought to take the case to trial.
That changed this year when, after the summary of facts was read in court, Strange told his lawyer he recognised the dangers of what he had done.
He was given the option to plead to a lesser charge of careless driving causing death or dangerous driving.
Strange chose to plead guilty to the more serious charge.
‘A good man’
Grant was the former skipper of the R. Tucker Thompson, the iconic Bay of Islands tall ship that delivers youth voyages teaching life skills.
He was also a celebrated poet who spoke of his deep connection with tangata whenua and his beloved home, Kororāreka. His last book, Got It, was published in 2022.
Judge Gene Tomlinson said Grant was “a good man” and on one occasion “his presence arrived in the courtroom, I certainly felt it”.
About 10.30am on 15 May, 2024, Grant was outside fixing his neighbour’s mailbox, six metres from the edge of Russell Whakapara Rd.
Strange had been smoking methamphetamine earlier that day and was driving a vehicle that had not had a warrant of fitness or registration for at least two years.
His driver’s licence had also lapsed two years earlier.
The road was wet, and Strange drove out of Russell township and entered a right-hand bend at a speed he was unable to manage.
The vehicle began to slide and, as Strange attempted to correct, spun clockwise and flew 22m through the air, hitting Grant.
The vehicle continued a further 8m before coming to rest in thick vegetation. Grant died a short time later from his injuries.
Strange admitted to smoking meth that day despite passing an impairment test.
Judge Tomlinson told the court at a previous hearing that Strange was “unbelievably arrogant and selfish to think you can smoke meth, drive an unwarranted, unregistered car, without a licence, around a 75k corner in the wet just because you are in a hurry”.
“You lacked consequential thinking and, like all people who put themselves above the safety of the rest of the community, they are selfish, and that selfishness has stolen from this family the life of a man who was loved and who loved.”
Crown lawyer Alex Goodwin said the fact Grant was working on a project for someone else spoke to the “volume of his character”.
Goodwin said although meth was not the cause of the crash, there was concern that Strange had relapsed and smoked meth since the incident.
Strange’s lawyer, Jonathan Natusch, said his client accepted full responsibility, was engaged in rehabilitation and had not smoked meth since December.
Judge Tomlinson said Grant’s family had been gracious to use the word “accident” to describe the crash.
“Your actions that day are like a large boulder thrown into a small puddle. It’s devastation,” Judge Tomlinson said.
“It was a crash, it was criminal, and Tim, as a consequence, is dead, was killed by you.”
The judge read a letter of remorse from Strange, who had also faced the family at a successful restorative justice conference.
“To all who keep Tim in their hearts, this will be the hardest letter I ever write. Already I struggle to find the words because there are none to explain that are close to matching,” Strange said.
“The full weight of this is now mine to bear for all of my days.”
The victims said at the restorative justice conference that they want Strange to live a better path.
“Nobody’s life should be defined by one mistake, but people’s lives are defined by simple mistakes and Tim’s life was ended by one,” the judge read from the notes given by the victims.
Finding Strange genuinely remorseful and at low risk of reoffending, Judge Tomlinson sentenced him to 11 months’ home detention and banned him from driving for two years.
* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.
Open Justice