Best man killed bride in crash on wedding day

Photo: iStock

The crash scene in Mt Wellington.

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The speeding driver of a car that crashed, killing a young bride on her wedding day, has been revealed as the groom's best man – and he will pay $60,000 reparation to her family.

"The rest of my life and my future has gone... I want to say sorry for my family, sorry for my parents, just sorry," Binhua Du told the Sunday Star-Times, speaking exclusively about the tragedy for the first time. He admitted he had been drinking, and was on a cellphone at the time of the crash. "I just want to tell you that ... is bad."

A year ago, Du – a Chinese national – had been driving the 26-year-old bride Yan Liu home from her Auckland wedding reception. Her groom, Qiang Mao, was Du's best friend and had decided to go home in a separate car to drop off a wedding guest who had too much to drink.

Minutes later the BMW Du was driving hit a pole at speed in Mt Wellington, killing Liu and injuring his then girlfriend Xiaozhen Li. Du and another passenger escaped unhurt.

Du is serving a nine-month home detention sentence, after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death and injury at a May hearing. He was disqualified from driving and will make voluntary reparation payments of $60,000 to Liu's family and $30,000 to Li.

But, he says, dealing with the trauma of what happened has been the real punishment.

Not only did the crash claim a "nice, happy" Liu, who had been working as a preschool teacher, but he lost his "best friend" Mao, and Li no longer talks to him. "My friend and my ex-girlfriend, all people [I] put in my heart."

He says he lost all the friends he has made in his eight years in New Zealand and has no family here. He "love[s] New Zealand", but the day after he completes his home detention sentence, he will have to return to China. He cannot bear to tell his parents that he must leave.

When asked if he had spoken to Mao since the crash, Du says: "I don't know, how can I say something to him? Maybe if we pass 12 or 20 years we can talk these things [through]... be friends."

He says he can not remember much about the crash. "In my mind, I forget it. I don't want to try remember this one, it's so terrible."

Senior Constable Craig Fraser of the serious crash unit told the Star-Times that speed and alcohol were factors in the crash.

"He went through a red traffic light at an estimated speed of 80-100km/h. And he was across in the wrong lane. He had intended to drive [north] but was in the left turning lane. That lane put him in the head-on collision with the pole he struck.

"And it happened at a time when there were heavy squalls coming through and other motorists in the area had slowed down to 30km/h because of the heavy rain. You know something went very wrong with his judgement that day."

Fraser says the reparation payments, decided on at restorative justice meetings, are the largest he has seen but are cultural gestures.

"He was the best man at the wedding and good mates with the husband of the deceased. I think he wanted to do the best he could; there's no way the courts would impose that kind of payment. This is the Chinese way of doing things ... And, of course, within his own community he may have been ostracised; it's just not a happy situation."

Du says at the meetings Liu's family and Li confronted him with their loss, which took its toll. "They talk [about] everything. I just want to say sorry. If I did not drink, these things [wouldn't have] happened. Nobody can change it. I just want to help but I can't help anything.

"Yan's family want money, and they lost their daughter. [But] if I pay the money, Yan can't come back; if I don't pay the money, Yan can't come back."

He remembers the good time they had at the wedding. He said the wedding and reception were "happy" and toasting with alcohol was traditional. "[That's] why we drink."

In some ways being on home detention is worse than being in prison, Du says. He feels he needs counselling but can't afford to have it here and can't leave the house at will. He struggles to get people to help him do chores or shopping. "I can't work, I can't study... How can I buy food?"

Six years ago, there was an outcry when Ding Yan Zhao, convicted of dangerous driving causing death and injury, had his sentence halved because of an offer of reparation to the victim's family. Zhao, who was 19 at the time, killed a four-year-old Waikato girl when his speeding car crashed at Rangiriri. Zhao's two-year jail term was cut when his family offered to pay the girl's kindergarten $40,000 in reparation.

The girl's family and the Sensible Sentencing Trust argued the move amounted to buying his way out of prison.

But trust spokesman Garth McVicar said yesterday he was in favour of reparation for victims of crime, if victims requested it, as in Du's case, and if the money was paid. But he said only a small number of reparation payments were made in full and there was no fall-back for victims when payments stopped. He called for a bail bond-type system where prisoners had their sentences reduced only upon full payment of reparation. Reparation is normally paid in weekly or monthly instalments. Du is paying $300 a week in reparation to Liu's family.