' He was a real sweetie '

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TOMMORROW marks five years to the day since 27-year old Craig Wyman lost his life in a head-on crash near Paekakariki. Craigs' mother, Andrea, says the death of her son was "completely devastating". She and her husband were holidaying in Malaysia when they received the news their second-born child had died. Their oldest son had to identify his brother's body and was still haunted by it, Mrs Wyman says.

"Craig's death affected the whole family. It really altered things, it changed the psyche of the family." She still misses her son, who was the "softie" of the family. She thinks about him every day and whenever she drives past the accident spot she says hello.
"He just pops into my mind all the time. He was a real sweatie."
Mrs Wyman and her family are convinced their son would be alive today if improvements had been made to the road, or if Transmission Gully had gone ahead.
She believes her son drifted to sleep at the wheel, causing him to cross to the oncoming lane. If the road were not so narrow, or there was a median barrier, she wouldn't have lost her son, she says. "It's just a very, very dangerous road. But it's ruled by money. They [the Government] are not prepared to spend anything on it."
"When you hear of another crash, you just think, 'Oh, another one gone,' another family affected. Just for the greedy buggers who do the wrong things with money.

2004 Fairfax New Zealand