Renee Kelly Vanry was sentenced at the Tauranga District Court on Thursday. Photo: Google Maps / Supplied
A Canadian woman has been sentenced for her role in a central North Island crash which saw members of a hockey team injured.
On Sunday at 10.30am, emergency services were called to the scene of a two vehicle crash on the Napier-Taupō Road, State Highway 5 near Rangitaiki School Rd.
A van was carrying a group of Canadian hockey players who had been playing at under-16 and under-18 competitions in Hawke's Bay and were on their way to Tauranga.
In a statement released by police on Thursday, it said Renee Kelly Vanry from West Vancouver was attempting to overtake a slower vehicle near a left-hand bend, with less than 100 metres visibility.
The van was still on the opposite side of the road when a Jeep rounded the corner and collided with it.
The force of the impact caused the van to become airborne, landing backwards in a ditch across the road.
Neither driver was injured, but four passengers in the van suffered a range of serious injuries and another seven were assessed and discharged that day.
Of the four, one had flown back to Canada, with another due to return home this week, while two remained in hospital in New Zealand.
The police said all face many months of recovery.
Vanry, 57, appeared in Tauranga District Court on Thursday and was sentenced on four charges of careless driving causing injury - relating to the serious injuries four of her passengers sustained - and another charge of careless driving - relating to the overtaking manoeuvre that caused the crash.
She was disqualified from driving for six months and ordered to pay $1000 for emotional harm to each of the four victims, and $1500 for emotional harm to the other driver.
Six other charges were withdrawn.
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