pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death<\/a>, and was sentenced at the Christchurch District Court on Friday.<\/p>\nThe 32-year-old was disqualified from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay a $10,000 emotional harm reparation payment to the Douglas family.<\/p>\n
Keusch addressed Douglas’ family in court, saying he was deeply remorseful.<\/p>\n
“I’m very, very sorry from the depths of my soul and the bottom of my heart for the mistake I made on the 19th of November which caused unthinkable tragedy,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Even two months after the accident, I still cannot explain why this happened. The only thing I know is that there’s no one to blame except myself.<\/p>\n
“You have every right to be angry and I don’t blame you for it.”<\/p>\n
Judge Tony Zohrab said the crash was caused by a momentary lapse in judgement.<\/p>\n
He said Keusch was driving on State Highway 73 towards Darfield and Douglas was driving the opposite way.<\/p>\n
“You began to slow your vehicle in preparation to make a right hand turn towards the intersection of State Highway 73 and the Inland Scenic Route 72. As you crossed the centre line turning into the intersection you collided head-on with Glenda’s vehicle,” he said.<\/p>\n
“She didn’t have a chance to react to your change in direction. Tragically, as a result of the impact she died at the scene.”<\/p>\n
Keusch’s defence said he had offered a $7,500 emotional harm reparation payment to Douglas’ family, and a $2,500 payment to St John.<\/p>\n
Judge Zohrab said Keusch’s willingness to face the consequences of his mistake spoke to his character.<\/p>\n
“I acknowledge the devastating and truly unimaginable grief that the family have had to deal with as a result of this. I also acknowledge the grace and understanding that they have shown to you Mr Keusch,” he said.<\/p>\n
“You have not sought to diminish your responsibility at any stage.”<\/p>\n
Judge Zohrab disqualified Keusch from driving for 18 months, and ordered him to pay Douglas’ family $10,000 and St John $2,500.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Keusch, 32, appears for sentencing on a charge of careless driving causing death in the Christchurch District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-235848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235848","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=235848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JUPFOB_Patrick_Keusch_JPG.jpeg\")
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