{"id":380257,"date":"2026-04-15T06:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T06:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380257\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T06:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T06:59:08","slug":"driver-in-rotorua-crash-that-killed-sakura-hall-2-admits-he-was-on-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380257\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver in Rotorua crash that killed Sakura Hall, 2, admits he was on drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">His lawyer, Andy Hill, said that while the man admitted the charge, he disputed some of the police\u2019s facts outlined in their summary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Hill asked the court for an adjournment to allow the Crown to consider the defence\u2019s expert evidence relating to the facts of the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">He said a dispute of facts hearing would need to be held if the parties couldn\u2019t agree.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Hill said a name suppression hearing had been partly heard, but more court time was needed for it to be completed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Judge Joanne Wickliffe said the case would be called on April 20 for a date to be set for the name suppression hearing to be finished.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">She remanded the case to also be called on May 20 to advise if the summary of facts could be agreed upon.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Police on Dansey Rd after the fatal crash on May 22 last year. Photo \/ Ben Fraser\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Police on Dansey Rd after the fatal crash on May 22 last year. Photo \/ Ben Fraser<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">A charging document supplied to the Rotorua Daily Post said a blood sample taken from the man after the crash contained evidence of THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis. It said the concentration of THC was 8 nanograms per millilitre of blood. The legally defined high-risk level is 3 nanograms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">The Land Transport Act 1998 charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years\u2019 imprisonment or a fine of $20,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Sakura was five weeks from her third birthday when she died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/author\/kelly-makiha\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kelly Makiha<\/a> is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His lawyer, Andy Hill, said that while the man admitted the charge, he disputed some of the police\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45859,105835,16489,5811,17285,11519,3549,15979,634,19552,1757,6868,57236,692,78,11946,3375,3180,111,43,139,69,90,1327,182895,1361,8238,6736,1316],"class_list":{"0":"post-380257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-45859","9":"tag-2yearold","10":"tag-admits","11":"tag-admitted","12":"tag-cannabis","13":"tag-causing","14":"tag-crash","15":"tag-crashed","16":"tag-death","17":"tag-driver","18":"tag-drugs","19":"tag-girl","20":"tag-hall","21":"tag-he","22":"tag-in","23":"tag-influence","24":"tag-killed","25":"tag-near","26":"tag-new-zealand","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-newzealand","29":"tag-nz","30":"tag-on","31":"tag-rotorua","32":"tag-sakura","33":"tag-that","34":"tag-under","35":"tag-was","36":"tag-when"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380257","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=380257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}