A family member of two people killed in a Northland collision with a drunk driver in March is devastated at the punishment handed down to the driver.
Aizaeah Kori-Lee Tarawa was sentenced on Tuesday to four years and three months in prison for his role in a crash that killed Janiah Fairburn, 20, and her two-year-old daughter, Azarliyah.
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Janiah's aunty Renae Paikea says the sentencing feels like "a slap in the face".
"It's really done damage on our family. Our family needs to be heard in the hope that no other family needs to be hurt like this," she told Newshub.
She says they want to see sentencing laws changed and harsher penalties handed down.
"He only got four years for killing two lives and seriously injuring the other two," she says.
"My great-nephew broke his neck but is still living he survived and fought hard to live me and my family are angry, hurt and angry. We want justice served right."
Tarawa, 19, crashed on State Highway 1 near Oruawharo Rd in Topuni on March 30 while more than three times the legal alcohol limit.
The teen should have had zero alcohol in his system when he got behind the wheel due to his age.
He was driving about 110km/h when he overtook another vehicle and crossed the centre line, slamming into the family in the other lane.
Fairburn, 20, and Azarliyah, died from the accident, while Fairburn's partner and one-year-old son were injured.
Tarawa was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for two charges of driving with excess breath alcohol level causing death and two years served concurrently for two charges of excess alcohol level causing injury.
He won't be able to hold or obtain a driver's licence for three years.
But Paikea told Newshub it's not good enough.
"That's not fair that he can kill two people and seriously injure two others and he gets to walk after four years."
She wants drunk driver charges that kill to be escalated to premeditated murder, because people know they are drinking before they hop into a car.
"In my families case, he took out two generations of our family... We feel powerless."
Newshub.
