Driver would have been the most injured, doctors and engineer say

MAARTEN HOLL/STUFF

A white cross marks the site of the accident where Leyton-Leigh Alderson died in 2015.

Medical and engineering experts have agreed that the man who died in a fatal Wainuiomata car crash in 2015 was most likely to have been the driver.

Coroner Tim Scott has been hearing an inquest in Wellington into the death of Leyton-Leigh Alderson who died when the car he was in hit a bridge on Main Rd, Wainuiomata, on June 7, 2015.

The question he is considering was whether Alderson was the driver or a survivor,  Beau McMenamin.

His decision is complicated by police initially laying charges against McMenamin for drunk driving causing death after they received an opinion from a pathologist saying that she thought McMenamin could be the driver.

However after seeing further evidence and having a second opinion the pathologist changed her statement to say Alderson was more likely to be the driver.

The charge against McMenamin was dismissed by a Wellington District Court judge last year who said the police case was inadequate.  He also awarded $9000 costs to McMenamin.

Pathologist Amy Spark told the coroner on Thursday that when she gave her opinion she had not seen any police reports or anything about the crash or car. She was making a decision based on the injuries she had seen only.

Once she had, and after talking with a second pathologist, she accepted that Alderson was probably the driver.

Spark said she did not expect that her opinion would be used for prosecution purposes.

"I wouldn't have stood by that opinion in court," she said.

She had not been aware that police were relying on it for prosecution.

Pathologist Martin Sage - who had been asked by McMenamin to give a second opinion - told the inquest he expected the most severely injured person to be the driver.

"There was no grounds one could conclude beyond reasonable doubt or even on the balance of probabilities that Mr McMenamin must have been the driver. "

He agreed with the Alderson family lawyer Elizabeth Hall that it was difficult to say which of the two were the driver but thought it more likely to be Alderson.

A Serious Crash report showed that the car was in poor condition and did not have a warrant and they were going between 80-98 kmh at the time of the crash.

Engineer Tim Stevenson who had inspected the car and how the accident happened said he expected that the person who was most at risk on injury would be the driver.

He also considered Alderson to be the driver.

The coroner has reserved his decision.