A 27-year-old bus driver was sentenced to four years in jail for the death of a pregnant woman by the Supreme Court.

Fatu Manino Aiono of Fasitoo-uta works as a mechanic and a bus driver for Andy Ah Far bus company at Fasitoo. He was recently sentenced by Senior Supreme Court Justice, Vui Clarence Nelson after he pleaded guilty to the charges against him. 

The deceased is Miriama Gaia, a 40-year-old mother of six of Nofoalii and was 38 weeks pregnant when she died. 

Aiono pleaded guilty to two counts of negligent driving causing death and one count of driving without a valid license. 

The police summary of facts stated the incident occurred on 7 May 2021. The deceased and her sister-in-law went to a bingo game at Faleasiu. 

The defendant was the substitute driver for the bus and was responsible for picking up people and dropping them home after bingo. 

The court heard the defendant was drinking Taula with some youths from Faleasiu that night and the bingo game finished around 11 pm. 

The deceased was walking on the other side of the road with her sister-in-law to catch a ride with a lady from their village at a nearby shop. 

According to the police report, Aiono was heading to drop off some ladies from Tufulele and made a U-turn but lost control of the bus and crashed into cars parked near a mechanic's shop. 

The bus driver panicked after this incident and quickly reversed the bus to escape the scene. While reversing across the front of a shop he ran over the deceased.

Aiono did not stop and drove off with the passengers in the bus while the injured deceased was taken to the Leulumoega hospital. She was transferred to the Moto’otua hospital but died on the way. 

The autopsy report confirmed that the deceased died from hemorrhagic shock and the fetus died of intrauterine distress.

During sentencing, Senior Justice Nelson reminded the accused that if he drinks don’t drive and if he has no license to drive a particular vehicle there is no excuse. 

He said he does accept the defendant’s statement to the Probation Office that the bus's brakes suddenly failed and resulted in the deceased being run over by his bus. 

The defendant was told there was no evidence this was a problem in that bus.

Justice Nelson stated the defendant is also the engineer of the company who looked after the maintenance of the bus fleet including this bus.

Parliament has increased the maximum penalty for negligent driving causing death from five years to 10 years and the fine from $5,000 to $25,000, echoing the courts' concern about this kind of offending. 

“With the staggering and seemingly unchecked increase in the number of vehicles being imported into a small island nation with such limited space the probability and possibility of accidents is growing exponentially,” said Justice Nelson. 

“Prosecutions for motor vehicle accidents particularly those causing death are growing in number and intensity as traffic numbers increase. 

“It may well be time for Parliament to seriously consider limiting the unrestricted flow of vehicles into the country.

“Consideration should also be given to the adverse impact and environmental damage that results from disused and rusting wrecks, car parts and written-off vehicles lying about.  Something the various administrations of this country constantly claim to be genuinely and sincerely concerned about.” 

The prosecution sought four and half years in prison as the starting point for the sentence but Justice Nelson said the case in his view lies within five years and upgraded it by six months to reflect the two victims. 

Time was deducted for the defendant’s prior good character, traditional apology, reconciliation and early guilty plea with total deduction of 18 months. 

Justice Nelson convicted and sentenced Aiono to 4 years in jail for negligent driving causing death of two victims.