{"id":378722,"date":"2026-04-14T09:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T09:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378722\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T09:20:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T09:20:20","slug":"driver-who-killed-pedestrian-in-hamilton-collision-saw-gp-days-earlier-worried-about-having-a-seizure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378722\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver who killed pedestrian in Hamilton collision saw GP days earlier, worried about having a seizure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man is defending charges of dangerous driving causing the death of Adrian Michael Bell, and injuring motorist Jeffrey Dawson, in the collision on April 26, 2021.<\/p>\n

The accused went straight through the intersection of Poaka Ave and Whatawhata Rd in Hamilton, before crashing into Dawson\u2019s ute.<\/p>\n

He then smashed through<\/a> a road sign and into Bell, before shunting him through the iron gates of a property.<\/p>\n

The driver then crashed into the back of two parked cars<\/a>, which were then pushed into a house, causing damage.<\/p>\n

Bell died at the scene.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice inspect the scene at the intersection of Poaka Ave and Whatawhata Rd. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n

While the defendant admits causing the crash and Bell\u2019s death, he is defending the charges on the basis that his driving didn\u2019t fall below the standard of a prudent driver and didn\u2019t create an objectively dangerous<\/a> situation.<\/p>\n

While there are 22 witness statements, only 10 witnesses would be called at the judge-alone trial.<\/p>\n

A \u2018psychiatric\u2019 seizure <\/p>\n

Today, now retired GP Dewes told the court that at the appointment on April 23, 2021, the defendant was \u201cworried about maybe having a seizure because he hadn\u2019t slept well and had a recent history of a hospital admission for seizures\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked by Crown prosecutor Russell Boot about the appointment\u2019s outcome, Dewes said he prescribed the man medication for rhinitis, as he was having trouble breathing through his mouth and nose.<\/p>\n

Boot pressed him about the defendant\u2019s concerns about having a seizure, and Dewes stated that information was gathered by a nurse during the triage process about 30 minutes beforehand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discussed seizures in our consultation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dewes said they also discussed \u201csomatoform disorder\u201d, where a seizure looks like an epileptic one but is in fact \u201da psychiatric one, in the mind, or originating from that”.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe easy thing for me to say is, I\u2019m not a psychiatrist … but it is a psychogenic form of a seizure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Defence counsel Ashleigh Beech confirmed with Dewes that the accused presented as normal during the appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly,\u201d Dewes replied.<\/p>\n

Asked if one of the causes of a psychogenic seizure was anxiety or stress, Dewes confirmed it was.<\/p>\n

He said he was \u201csuperficially\u201d aware of the defendant\u2019s anxiety disorder but because he was concerned about sleep apnoea, he focused on his sleep issues.<\/p>\n

Asked whether they discussed him driving, Dewes said it wasn\u2019t discussed.<\/p>\n

Earlier discussion about driving<\/p>\n

Cambridge neurologist Dr Peter Wright gave evidence an appointment the defendant had with Wright\u2019s registrar colleague in early February 2019, as a follow-up to his appointment in November 2018.<\/p>\n

It was in the November appointment that the defendant was told not to drive for 12 months, given he had been having seizure-like events.<\/p>\n

At that stage, Wright believed the defendant\u2019s seizures were anxiety-related.<\/p>\n

Asked by Boot whether there was any discussion with the defendant about driving, Wright said, \u201cAbsolutely, yes, there was\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wright produced a letter that stated the accused was not to drive for 12 months from November 2018, a copy of which was sent to his home address.<\/p>\n

Beech asked if it was common for people who suffer seizure events to experience memory loss, Wright confirmed they\u2019d be left with a \u201cpatchy memory\u201d, especially if they had lost consciousness.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t remember that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At the time of that appointment, the defendant had not received a formal diagnosis, but the doctor couldn\u2019t confidently rule out epilepsy.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe car ploughed through the iron gates of this property and into the back of two parked cars. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n

Questioned by Beech about her client being advised not to drive, Wright said there was \u201cno ambiguity about what was meant\u201d.<\/p>\n

She then said his evidence was reading a letter written by his registrar, but signed by him. His registrar was also the one who saw her client in his appointment that day.<\/p>\n

Wright agreed, but said that was normal.<\/p>\n

Beech then repeatedly pressed Wright about how sure he could be that her client received the letter, asking him whether he knew who put it in the post.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are as sure as I am,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

The trial continues.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man is defending charges of dangerous driving causing the death of Adrian Michael Bell, and injuring motorist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,9218,197246,34094,15245,20496,4731,7061,19552,3602,33445,69835,6288,305,1360,78,671,23420,296,3375,5978,2510,111,43,139,69,33551,81545,7812,26257,10811,4477,210,6861,1299,37458],"class_list":{"0":"post-378722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-about","9":"tag-before","10":"tag-careered","11":"tag-collision","12":"tag-concerned","13":"tag-crashing","14":"tag-days","15":"tag-doctor","16":"tag-driver","17":"tag-earlier","18":"tag-fatally","19":"tag-gp","20":"tag-hamilton","21":"tag-have","22":"tag-having","23":"tag-in","24":"tag-incident","25":"tag-intersection","26":"tag-into","27":"tag-killed","28":"tag-might","29":"tag-multiple","30":"tag-new-zealand","31":"tag-news","32":"tag-newzealand","33":"tag-nz","34":"tag-pedestrian","35":"tag-saw","36":"tag-seen","37":"tag-seizure","38":"tag-straight","39":"tag-striking","40":"tag-through","41":"tag-vehicles","42":"tag-who","43":"tag-worried"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378722","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=378722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}