CCTV footage from the bar showed they left with Heurea driving their Subaru Forester car and Sadler in the passenger seat.<\/p>\n
About 14 hours later, a motorist noticed tyre marks on SH35, about 15km from \u014cp\u014dtiki, in the gravel at the edge of a cliff.<\/p>\n
The witness investigated and found a crashed car resting in a creek at the bottom of a steep roadside embankment, the finding said.<\/p>\n
The witness contacted emergency services, who found the couple\u2019s bodies inside the crashed car.<\/p>\n
Neither of them had been wearing seatbelts and both recorded high blood alcohol levels.<\/p>\n
Heurea\u2019s was nearly five times the legal blood alcohol limit to drive.<\/p>\n
The legal limit for drivers aged over 20 is 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. <\/p>\n
Toxicology testing found Heurea had 245mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. Sadler\u2019s level was 280mg.<\/p>\n
The findings<\/p>\n
Associate Coroner Stephen Burdes, who headed the Coroner\u2019s Court inquiry, said the dangers of driving while intoxicated and not wearing seatbelts were well-advertised.<\/p>\n
He said he could not add anything to the warnings that were already known and available. <\/p>\n
Instead, he released the findings to the media in the hope publication about the couple\u2019s deaths would \u201cserve as an example of the devastating consequences of driving while intoxicated\u201d.<\/p>\n
He concluded the crash happened because Heurea lost control due to high levels of alcohol intoxication.<\/p>\n
She lost control on a gentle right-hand bend, having first crossed over the left-hand edge of the road. The time of the crash was not known but it was likely not long after they left the bar. <\/p>\n
The road was considered in good condition and it was a dry and warm night.<\/p>\n
A crash analysis by police calculated Heurea would have been travelling between 77km\/h and 84km\/h when she lost control.<\/p>\n
Burdes said the couple died from injuries as a result of the crash. <\/p>\n
He said their failure to wear seatbelts was a contributory cause, noting Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency evidence that said wearing a seatbelt increases the chance of surviving a crash by 40%.<\/p>\n