{"id":56679,"date":"2025-10-02T17:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T17:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/56679\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T17:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T17:33:08","slug":"teens-driving-inexperience-and-alcohol-consumption-led-to-fatal-crash-near-taupo-says-coroner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/56679\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen\u2019s driving inexperience and alcohol consumption led to fatal crash near Taup\u014d, says coroner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The coroner\u2019s findings <\/a>said initially the pair had planned for Kimi Jnr to pick Te Pairi up from work when she finished for the night.<\/p>\n

But after he became too intoxicated to drive, he was instead driven to her workplace by a sober friend, in her car.<\/p>\n

When they arrived, Te Pairi wasn\u2019t there, so they instead met her at a bar in Taup\u014d, where she\u2019d been having a drink.<\/p>\n

\"PurityPurity Anne Te Pairi died on January 17, 2025, after the car she was driving hit an embankment, killing her and her passenger, Tamatoa Kimi Jnr. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

She got in her car and drove off with Kimi Jnr and her mother as passengers.<\/p>\n

The findings said that at some point, her mother was dropped off, and the pair continued driving around town.<\/p>\n

Shortly before midnight, tragedy struck when Te Pairi was driving west along Taup\u014d\u2019s Mapara Rd.<\/p>\n

Crash analysis showed that as she approached a moderate left-hand bend on a slight downhill, the car crossed into the wrong lane.<\/p>\n

Te Pairi steered sharply in response and over-corrected, causing the car to slide across two lanes and on to the grass verge.<\/p>\n

The passenger side hit an embankment, the car rotated, and the rear of the car went up the embankment.<\/p>\n

Other road users came upon the crash, and contacted emergency services, later giving evidence that the car had, moments before the crash, overtaken them \u201cerratically and at speed, without indicating\u201d.<\/p>\n

Both teens sustained fatal injuries and were confirmed dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

\"TamatoaTamatoa David Kimi Jnr died with longstanding friend Purity Te Pairi in a fatal car crash in January 2025. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

A post-mortem examination confirmed their deaths had been caused by blunt force injuries, while toxicology reports confirmed alcohol was present in Te Pairi\u2019s blood, and cannabis was detected, as was the case for Kimi Jnr.<\/p>\n

Te Pairi\u2019s blood alcohol reading was \u201cjust under\u201d the legal limit for drivers aged 20 years and over, but as a 19-year-old she was not meant to consume any alcohol before driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn any event, I consider that alcohol was a contributing factor to the crash,\u201d Coroner Telford said.<\/p>\n

The coroner also considered the police\u2019s view that, given Te Pairi was on a learner\u2019s licence, which she acquired in August 2023, her driving manner contributed to the crash.<\/p>\n

She had not had an appropriate supervisor with her in the car, and her \u201cabrupt manoeuvre\u201d to try to correct her being in the wrong lane was indicative of her inexperience.<\/p>\n

Police speed calculations indicated that speed was not a factor in the crash, however.<\/p>\n

The coroner said it was widely understood that driving while intoxicated is dangerous, and the message was \u201cregularly reinforced\u201d by police and the NZ Transport Agency.<\/p>\n

However, he said, there appeared to be a \u201cpersistent and deeply ingrained tendency within our society to overlook, or silently tolerate, unlicensed driving on our roads\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a contributing factor in a significant number of cases that come before the Coroner\u2019s Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this case, he said, Te Pairi should not have been driving that night, had consumed alcohol and possibly cannabis, had no supervisor with her, and \u201chad not passed a test to show she could drive a car\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the driver licensing system existed to ensure those who get behind the wheel have the competence to drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore you drive on public roads, get properly trained, get properly licensed, and follow the road rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not merely legal formalities,\u201d Coroner Telford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are essential safeguards designed to protect life. The deaths of Tamatoa and Purity are a heartbreaking reminder of what can happen when those safeguards are disregarded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The coroner\u2019s findings said initially the pair had planned for Kimi Jnr to pick Te Pairi up from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20784,95,11085,12629,3549,4189,11784,47563,18557,3180,111,43,139,69,312,1852,672,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-56679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-alcohol","9":"tag-and","10":"tag-consumption","11":"tag-coroner","12":"tag-crash","13":"tag-driving","14":"tag-fatal","15":"tag-inexperience","16":"tag-led","17":"tag-near","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-says","23":"tag-taup","24":"tag-teens","25":"tag-to"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56679","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=56679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}