Chinese tourist fined for deadly NZ car crash
A Chinese tourist has been ordered to pay $23,000 to victims injured in a car accident in New Zealand earlier this year.
Lai Xu acknowledged his actions led to the accident which injured three people in an oncoming car near the town of Tekapo.
Xu’s mother and both his in-laws were killed in the crash.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of careless driving causing death and four of careless driving causing injury.
One of the injured victims, who was in court in a wheelchair, will receive $18,000, and the other two injured will get $2,500. Xiu’s wife was also badly injured in the crash.
"He is carrying the injury he caused to [the other driver], but also to his wife – and the death of his own mother, and both his wife’s parents. They came here to have a holiday and the outcome has been entirely tragic," said Anne Stevens QC, Xu’s defebce lawyer.
"It’s the result of an inadvertent misjudgement when he saw another vehicle approaching towards them on the same piece of road – unfortunately, a gravel road that is not suitable really for people who are not familiar with driving in New Zealand."
Xu swerved right – as is the norm in China – but that took it straight into the path of the oncoming vehicle.
Stevens said her client had driven in China for 17 years without an accident.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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