{"id":156064,"date":"2025-11-27T08:57:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T08:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/156064\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T08:57:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T08:57:13","slug":"roger-samsons-excessively-corroded-trailer-broke-apart-and-hit-car-killing-young-mum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/156064\/","title":{"rendered":"Roger Samson\u2019s \u2018excessively corroded\u2019 trailer broke apart and hit car, killing young mum"},"content":{"rendered":"

A large number of Hana-Wetere\u2019s wh\u0101nau were also in court<\/a> to hear Samson enter his guilty plea, while Judge Kim Saunders acknowledged the \u201closs and sorrow\u201d they must all be feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate how difficult it must be … to sit in court and see the person who was responsible for the death<\/a> of your loved one.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also told them all they were welcome to write a victim impact statement and read it to Samson at his sentencing in April.<\/p>\n

\u2018Doesn\u2019t look too bad\u2019<\/p>\n

The eight-page summary of facts states in detail how Samson contacted a person selling a Haines Hunter fibreglass boat and metal trailer in Tauranga<\/a> on June 23, via Facebook Marketplace.<\/p>\n

The boat was listed as a \u201cproject boat\u201d as there was a \u201cconsiderable amount\u201d of work required to get both boat and trailer up to seaworthy and roadworthy standard.<\/p>\n

The trailer\u2019s WOF expired in July 2016 and it had been \u201cextensively affected by corrosion\u201d, to the point there were visible holes in its frame and large areas of discolouration.<\/p>\n

On June 23, the seller of the boat messaged Samson saying, \u201cbrakes are not to [sic] bad, just need a drag around the block to free them up, tyres are good, has a bit of rust on frame rail but doesn\u2019t look like it will brake [sic] easily, lights work\u201d.<\/p>\n

In photos sent to Samson, there were two areas on the trailer that had completely corroded.<\/p>\n

On the phone, Samson told the seller he was a \u201cfabricator and machinist\u201d, which put him at ease about assessing the trailer\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n

He got its details and on July 10, paid for a new registration from H\u0101wera VTNZ, registering it as a \u201cgrey 2025 homebuilt New Zealand new TB trailer\u201d.<\/p>\n

The following day, he, his partner and an associate travelled from New Plymouth<\/a> to Tauranga, arriving about 9am.<\/p>\n

The seller pointed out areas of corrosion, and Samson replied, \u201cOh yip, that doesn\u2019t look too bad\u201d.<\/p>\n

He bought the trailer and boat for $3000, hitched it to his Volkswagen and set off on the approximately 370km journey back to New Plymouth. <\/p>\n

He cut through an alternate route from Piarere to Kihikihi so he wouldn\u2019t have to use SH1 and possibly be stopped by police.<\/p>\n

As he travelled south of Te K\u016biti<\/a> on SH3, the trailer broke on the drawbar, about 30cm back from the tow ball.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Hana-Wetere and her 3-year-old son were travelling north in the passing lane.<\/p>\n

The trailer and boat crossed the centre line, crashing into her car.<\/p>\n

Due to the impact, the boat moved off the trailer and careered straight through the windscreen, fatally striking Hana-Wetere.<\/p>\n

The police serious crash unit found numerous issues with the trailer.<\/p>\n

The front right section of its frame was \u201ccompromised by excessive corrosion to the point where it had rusted through the entire thickness of the structure, leaving visible holes\u201d.<\/p>\n

There was also \u201cexcessive corrosion\u201d at the pivot point, where the front drawbar of the trailer is held to the cross beam by a bolt; in the drawbar; and on the brake discs, while both brake callipers were contaminated with grease, with the right one completely seized and \u201cnon-operational\u201d.<\/p>\n

The combined weight of the trailer and boat was 2380kg. <\/p>\n

As the trailer had faulty and non-operational brakes, the vehicle was only able to safely tow up to 750kg.<\/p>\n

Samson knew the trailer was unwarranted and, despite having inspecting it, he tried to tow it 370km to his home, \u201cignoring the clearly visible and significant corrosion and falsely registering it as a new trailer\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant\u2019s decision to tow the unroadworthy trailer created a situation where the public was placed in danger,\u201d the police summary of facts stated.<\/p>\n

Hana-Wetere suffered fractures to her skull, jaw, ribs, humerus, femur and elbow, along with lacerations to her liver, spleen and kidneys.<\/p>\n

Samson was convicted and remanded on bail to reappear for sentencing in April, before being escorted out of the court and over to the adjacent Te K\u016biti police station by detectives and security staff.<\/p>\n

\u2018She had everything going for her\u2019<\/p>\n

Hana-Wetere\u2019s brother, Te Huia Brown-Hana, told RNZ in August his sister was on her way back home to Auckland after a holiday in New Plymouth when the crash happened.<\/p>\n

His sister was \u201clarger than life\u201d, caring and had a \u201cbubbly\u201d personality.<\/p>\n

She was everything you could have wanted and more in terms of a sibling.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe always accepted everyone for who they were. She didn\u2019t pass judgment on no one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hana-Wetere\u2019s partner was working in Australia, and she was planning to join him eventually.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had everything going \u2013 she started planning out what she wanted in her life and how she wanted to get there and she was actually doing really well,\u201d Brown-Hana said.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A large number of Hana-Wetere\u2019s wh\u0101nau were also in court to hear Samson enter his guilty plea, while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,103394,20493,46300,3944,103393,103395,20496,20209,60049,44323,68082,4975,71,1364,3594,11546,296,11156,16122,5969,2721,111,43,139,69,2847,6372,91908,103392,21714,12641,1240,16715,1361,210,2983,6845,2201,5816,4741],"class_list":["post-156064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-apart","tag-brakes","tag-broke","tag-car","tag-corroded","tag-corrosion","tag-crashing","tag-entire","tag-excessive","tag-excessively","tag-frame","tag-free","tag-from","tag-her","tag-hit","tag-instantly","tag-into","tag-killing","tag-mans","tag-much","tag-mum","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-only","tag-roger","tag-rust","tag-samsons","tag-sections","tag-seized","tag-south","tag-taranaki","tag-that","tag-through","tag-trailer","tag-vehicle","tag-went","tag-womans","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}