I wonder how the family and friends of Rachael Harris are feeling today.

Rachael was the 62-year-old woman who died in August last year in a crash that happened in Christchurch after a man reeking of alcohol drove through a red light at more than 120 km/h and smashed into her car, pushing it 33 metres along the road.

Rachael died instantly. It’s been reported that it’s thought she was on her way home after helping a friend with their animals.

The car that smashed into Rachael’s car was doing 124 km/h when it ran the red light and 117 km/h when the crash happened. Rachael was travelling at 27 km/h per hour.

But it gets worse.

The guy who drove through the red light - Sunny Nepia - and his passenger, got out of their car, the passenger checked on Rachael and saw that she’d passed away, and then these two spineless creeps took off before emergency services arrived.

They stuck around long enough for members of the public who were on the scene to smell the alcohol on Nepia’s breath, hear him slurring his words and wonder whether they might have been on drugs too because of the way they were behaving.

But I gather it was a pretty brief encounter because when Nepia and his mate asked these people for a ride to get out of there, they said no, and so the two of them ran off.

But it gets worse.

When the police eventually caught up with Nepia about a day after the crash, he told them he’d had three pre-mixed bourbon drinks before the crash and had been unsure whether the traffic lights at the intersection were red, amber or green when he approached it at more than 120 km/h per hour.

And it wasn’t the first time Nepia had driven drunk. Before that terrible crash last August, he’d been done for drink-driving five times and he was done a sixth time for this one. And just last week, he breached his bail conditions by drinking alcohol.

And so yesterday, he appeared in court to be sentenced after pleading guilty to a charge of dangerous driving causing death. He had also faced a charge of failing to stop because he did a runner after the crash - but that was dropped because his passenger had gone and checked on Rachael and had seen that she had passed away before they took off.

So yesterday was his sentencing day. And what do you think he got?

Bear in mind this guy admitted dangerous driving causing death, he took off before emergency services got there, it was the sixth time he was done for drink driving and he breached his bail conditions just last week by drinking alcohol.

Was he sent to prison? No he wasn’t. Instead, he got 12 months home detention with community work.

Reading the court report, it appears the sentencing judge gave Nepia a lot of credit for going through a restorative justice meeting with Rachael Harris’ family.

His lawyer told the court it was one of the hardest things his client has ever had to do. And the sentencing judge said it would have taken a lot of courage to face Rachael’s family.

The court also heard that Nepia had been brought up with alcohol all around him. As his godmother said yesterday, the way his family did things was that if there was a problem they’d drink, and even if there wasn’t a problem, they’d drink.

And it was acknowledged that Nepia himself has a “chronic” alcohol problem.

But sometimes you’ve just gotta say “boo-hoo”, don’t you? I can’t share the Court’s sympathy for this guy. And, in my mind, the sentence he got yesterday was nothing short of outrageous.

12 months home detention after driving drunk for the sixth time, killing an innocent woman after running a red light at more than 120 km/h, doing a runner before emergency services arrived, and then breaching his bail last week by drinking alcohol.

It is nothing short of outrageous and - in my view - there is no way justice has been done.

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