The drunk driver responsible for claiming the life of 23-year-old Luke MacKenzie today avoided jail -- and he has the victim's family to thank for that.
"We didn't wish that he and his family were tormented any more than was absolutely necessary," Martin MacKenzie, Luke's father, said of Xingyu Shang.
Luke, a young Air New Zealand employee, was driving to work early one Monday morning in February 2014 when Shang was drunk behind the wheel and crashed into him on Chapel Rd in south Auckland.
Instead of going to see if Luke was okay, Shang ran off and hitched a ride home.
"How we feel can never be expressed," Mr MacKenzie says. "The loss of Luke is sad, but in particular the way in which we lost him, to drink driving."
Three days before the case was meant to go to trial, Shang pleaded guilty to careless driving while under the influence and failing to stop after the crash.
While Luke's parents don't forgive Shang, they know holding a grudge won't bring their son back -- so in a rare move, they requested the 27-year-old stay out of jail.
This morning he was sentence to nine months' home detention.
In front of a packed-out gallery filled with Luke's family and friends, the judge said Shang has done everything possible to admit wrongdoing.
He visited Luke's gravesite, paid reparations to Luke's family and fiancé, and went through restorative justice.
Shang will serve his home detention sentence in Auckland before he is deported to China.
Newshub.
