Campervan driver assaults elderly man on South Island highway
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123RF
A campervan driver head-butted a 71-year-old who stopped on the side of a highway and confronted him about his dangerous driving.
The victim had been following Daniel Juan Daly on SH1 in the lower South Island last September.
The man saw Daly pass a large truck in a dangerous manoeuvre that forced an oncoming driver off the road.
Further up the road the victim watched as Daly pulled over in his campervan, got out, stepped out into the path of the truck and bashed the side of it as it went past.
"It's really quite astonishing behaviour," Judge Jo Rielly said in sentencing Daly in the Nelson District Court today on charges of assault and dangerous driving.
The court heard how the 39-year-old was driving a campervan north on the state highway near Waitaki on September 5 last year.
He was following the large haulage truck and trailer unit which was travelling at a governed speed of 90km/h, meaning it was unable to travel faster.
The vehicles then entered a section of the road with an 80km/h speed limit, when Daly, who was frustrated at not being able to pass, made several "erratic moves".
As Daly pulled out to pass, he crossed the centre line and accelerated, forcing a south-bound vehicle to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
The older driver was travelling two vehicles behind the truck, the police said.
When he saw Daly walk out in front of the truck, he pulled off the road and parked in front of his campervan. Daly asked the driver in a confrontational way what he wanted, before lunging at him and knocking him to the ground.
The victim got up before Daly again knocked him down and then head-butted him.
Police said that after a brief tussle, Daly helped the man to his feet. He was uninjured, but his glasses were damaged.
Judge Rielly said he was lucky to be facing a low-level assault charge.
Daly, who was no stranger to the court system, including having been earlier convicted on a dangerous driving charge, now lives in a remote area of Marlborough where he works as a pest controller.
In Nelson he was convicted, sentenced and fined on the charges, despite his lawyer requesting a sentence that he come up for sentence if called upon.
Judge Rielly said that was "an unrealistic submission".
Defence lawyer Josh Friend said Daly accepted his manoeuvre in passing the truck was unsafe and that ordinarily he was a "reliable driver". Last year he received his heavy vehicle licence.
Friend said Daly's last conviction for violence matters was 11 years ago, and in 2019 he was convicted on a theft charge.
Friend said it was Daly's perspective that the scuffle ensued after he was approached by the other driver, but "he took the wrong action by head-butting him".
Judge Rielly said Daly's actions had been particularly dangerous, not only because of the type of vehicle he had been driving but because of the sustained period he had been trying to get past the truck.
She said his driving had put other road users at risk but his attempt to get in the path of the truck was "really quite astonishing behaviour".
On the charge of dangerous driving, Daly was convicted and fined $400 and disqualified from driving for eight months.
On the assault charge he was sentenced to 80 hours of community work and ordered to pay $200 in emotional harm reparation.
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This story originally appeared in the
New Zealand Herald
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