10 Mar 2015

Taiwanese tourist disqualified from driving

4:36 pm on 10 March 2015

A Taiwanese tourist who ran a stop sign and killed her passenger father in the resulting crash has been ordered to pay $2000 in reparations and disqualified from driving in New Zealand.

Chia-Fang Chu.

Chia-Fang Chu outside Christchurch District Court. Photo: RNZ / Sally Murphy

Chia-Fang Chu, 39, was driving with six family members when she ran a stop sign at a Templeton intersection last month, colliding with a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Her father, 66-year-old Fu-Hwa Ju, died in the crash, and her mother was injured, along with a passenger in the other vehicle.

Chu was this morning disqualified from holding or obtaining a New Zealand drivers licence for two years, and ordered her to pay the other vehicle's driver $2000 in reparations.

Chu said she would never forgive herself.

Judge Couch read a statement from the defendant to the Court which told of her father's detailed planning of the trip, and how much they had enjoyed it.

The defendant said she saw her father's face every day.

She is anxious to return to Taiwan to attend her father's funeral.

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs