manslaughter<\/a> and one of reckless driving causing injury.<\/p>\n![\"Norton]()
Norton Charles Kitchener Sowerby was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n
Justice Mathew Downs told Sowerby – who has six previous convictions for driving while disqualified – that he was never even meant to be behind the wheel that day, let alone driving while high on meth.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were also serving a sentence of intensive supervision when you did this, somewhat ironically, that was for driving while disqualified.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Downs labelled Sowerby\u2019s actions as \u201cprofoundly reckless\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m not the driver\u2019<\/p>\n
Details of the crash revealed that Sowerby was driving his Holden Captiva south on Peachgrove Rd at 4.29am when he came to the crossing.<\/p>\n
A vehicle had already stopped and the warning lights were flashing and the barrier arm was down.<\/p>\n
Sowerby overtook the car in front by driving onto the wrong side of the road.<\/p>\n
He ignored his passengers\u2019 protests to stop and drove diagonally through the barrier arms.<\/p>\n
The train, travelling west towards the CBD, was unable to stop and struck the vehicle\u2019s left rear door, causing it to spin before and colliding with the metal support of the northbound barrier arm, where it came to a stop.<\/p>\n
Police arrived at the scene within minutes and found Sowerby in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not the driver,\u201d he told them.<\/p>\n
One of the victims had been ejected from the rear seat of the car by the force of the impact and was found dead on Peachgrove Rd.<\/p>\n
Two of the other victims were found dead in the back seat, while the surviving passenger suffered injuries to his cheekbone, spine, scalp, and chest.<\/p>\n
![\"Whanau]()
Whanau of William Brown, 46, Shylin Huirama-Osborne, 26, and Sione Nusipepa, 23, outside the High Court at Hamilton in August after Norton Sowerby pleaded guilty to causing the men’s deaths. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n
A member of the public who heard the crash went to the scene and saw Sowerby swallowing pills from his bag.<\/p>\n
Police also found a meth pipe in Sowerby\u2019s bag that was around his waist.<\/p>\n
After being taken to Waikato Hospital, Sowerby reiterated that he wasn\u2019t the driver.<\/p>\n
\u2018Bro, bro, bro\u2019<\/p>\n
Defence counsel Nadine Baier said her client accepted that this was a case involving an \u201cextremely sad and tragic outcome for what was appallingly bad, dangerous, and reckless split-second decision made by Mr Sowerby\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat decision was made by his impairment of methamphetamine to a high level, that\u2019s accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said her client didn\u2019t intend for the crash or the deaths to occur, and he would have to live with his decision for the rest of his life. <\/p>\n
Those who died and were injured were his friends, she said.<\/p>\n
A pre-sentence report said Sowerby offered no explanation for the offending, other than he just \u201cwanted to do it\u201d, saying the victims told him to \u201chit it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Baier said that had been an early comment made by Sowerby and he had accepted that one passenger had said, \u201cbro, bro, bro\u201d, effectively meaning to stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s made the decision and gone across the tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether there were any more comments by passengers encouraging him to cross the tracks, Baier said there weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n
She sought a 25% discount for Sowerby\u2019s guilty pleas, entered five months after he was charged, and credit for his background and meth addiction.<\/p>\n
\u2018Your driving comprised a death trap\u2019<\/p>\n
Justice Downs noted the Crown described Sowerby\u2019s actions as \u201cdeliberate\u201d, while the defence labelled them \u201cimpulsive\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou took three lives through profoundly reckless driving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were driving under the influence of methamphetamine and intoxicated, and when you should not have been driving at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Downs was also critical of Sowerby\u2019s denial that he was driving.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Defence counsel Nadine] Baier says your initial reaction was shock, but shock does not explain your later hospital denial.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge noted the impact on the victims\u2019 families.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing I can say can capture the enormity of the harm you have done. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are three grieving families and many, many affected people.\u201d<\/p>\n
A wh\u0101nau member of Brown said they didn\u2019t have the words to describe his loss, while a member of Huirama-Osborne\u2019s family has found that time has not healed the pain of losing his loved one.<\/p>\n
Nusipepa\u2018s wh\u0101nau said his children would now only get to see him on a screen or on a print.<\/p>\n
The surviving passenger had been left with life-changing injuries, suffering constant headaches and difficulty breathing.<\/p>\n
But despite that, he still had \u201csympathy\u201d for Sowerby, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Justice Downs allowed a 25% discount for his guilty plea before sending him to prison for eight years.<\/p>\n
He imposed a minimum non-parole period of four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could, and should, have appreciated that what you were doing was profoundly dangerous and likely to result in death,\u201d he told Sowerby.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn short, you should have appreciated your driving comprised a death trap.\u201d<\/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":"The vehicle was struck by a passing train, killing three of his friends. William Chaney Marsters Brown, 46,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2840,74,11519,113068,4189,20106,1445,6288,2959,293,11156,15035,1868,111,43,139,39870,69,1118,90,33263,56820,5161,113067,20705,1529,9202,11685],"class_list":["post-176440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-across","tag-after","tag-causing","tag-counts","tag-driving","tag-drove","tag-friends","tag-hamilton","tag-high","tag-his","tag-killing","tag-manslaughter","tag-meth","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-norton","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-oncoming","tag-onto","tag-sentenced","tag-sowerby","tag-struck","tag-three","tag-tracks","tag-train"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176440","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=176440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}