Unlicensed delivery driver affected by cannabis when he caused fatal Hamilton crash

An unlicensed delivery driver who drifted across the centre line of a road and crashed into another vehicle, killing one of the occupants and seriously injuring the other, was under the influence of cannabis at the time.

Darren Earnest Lahood had just finished his early morning shift and was heading west past Whatawhata on State Highway 23 when he collided head-on with a vehicle driven by Adriana Anna Maria Melis, known as Janine, who was killed instantly, on April 22 last year.

In the Hamilton District Court this morning, Lahood, 32, admitted two charges of driving with a controlled drug in his system causing Melis’ death, and causing injury to her partner, Michael Maclarn.

The charges carry a 10 and five-year maximum prison sentence, respectively.

Court documents state Lahood, of Woodville, Manawatū, began his shift delivering goods around Hamilton and Raglan at 4.18am.

The weather on the day was wet making road conditions difficult, the summary of facts stated.

Lahood was driving a Hyundai van fitted with a Navman dash camera, which helped investigators analyse his driving.

By 6.40am, he’d finished his Hamilton deliveries and was heading west towards Raglan on State Highway 23.

However, on the way, his Navman showed the van drifting across the centre line and side fog lines multiple times after he went past Whatawhata.

Such behaviour appeared to increase the further he went into the trip towards Raglan.

As Lahood’s driving deteriorated, Melis and Maclarn were heading in the opposite direction to pick up a family member from Hamilton before going to Auckland.

Melis, 63, was driving her Nissan Pulsar while her 70-year-old partner was asleep in the passenger seat.

As Melis’ vehicle approached from the other direction, Lahood again drifted onto the wrong side of the road but this time it remained there and the cars collided head-on.

She suffered a non-survivable spinal fracture and died at the scene, while Maclarn was taken to Waikato Hospital with a small brain bleed, multiple cuts to his face, fractured sternum and soreness.

Lahood had minor injuries and was also taken to the hospital where he had a blood sample taken for testing for impairment.

It returned a THC (cannabis) reading of 3.6 nanograms per millilitres of blood, which exceeded the “high risk” level of 3. The tolerance level is 1.

At the time, Lahood was not meant to be driving as he had yet to reinstate his licence after having it suspended due to excessive demerit points.

Lahood was convicted by Judge Kim Saunders and remanded on bail for sentencing in July.

She referred the case to restorative justice.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.