Mechanics who looked at a car the day before it was in an accident that claimed the lives of a young couple believed it had previously been involved in a front-end crash and was not repaired properly. 

However, a coroner’s investigation has found the vehicle was mechanically sound and there was no clear reason why the driver lost control. 

Joshua Tom van Hooijdonk, 19, and Maja Eve Sanders, 20, both died when the 2008 Subaru Legacy was involved in a two-car collision on State Highway 5 near Te Pōhue, Hawke’s Bay on May 16, 2020. 

Van Hooijdonk had bought the car in Auckland about two months earlier and the couple, both fine arts students at the Eastern Institute of Technology, were heading back to Hastings on a return trip to take photographs at Huka Falls. 

A coroner’s report released today said they were both wearing seat belts. 

Van Hooijdonk was driving and Sanders was in the front passenger seat. The road was wet and slippery, but the rain from earlier had stopped and visibility was good. 

Coroner Mary-Anne Borrowdale said van Hooijdonk lost control of the Subaru while negotiating a slight, downhill right-hand bend. 

He crossed the centreline and went into the path of a Hyundai being driven by a woman travelling in the opposite direction. 

The passenger side of the Subaru struck the front of the Hyundai. 

The Subaru sustained significant damage to the passenger side and the passenger cabin was extensively damaged, with the airbags deploying. 

The woman in the Hyundai was critically injured and airlifted to hospital, but survived. 

Coroner Borrowdale found that van Hooijdonk and Sanders died from injuries sustained in the accident. 

Her report said that on the day before the crash, van Hooijdonk had taken the car to a mechanic, who noticed that the front radiator support panel was not welded correctly and in some places not at all. 

Another mechanic looked under the bonnet and found non-uniform welding and other defects. 

Borrowdale said the mechanics formed the view that the Subaru had undergone a previous serious frontal impact and “had not been repaired properly”. 

The garage advised van Hooijdonk that there was a lot of work that needed repair. 

“They recommended that Josh stop driving the vehicle until the problems were sorted,” Borrowdale said. 

“Josh is said to have ‘seemed quite shocked to hear this’,” she said. 

“There is no evidence as to what Josh thought of this advice, or confirming whether he repeated it to anyone,” the coroner said. 

Borrowdale requested a further inspection of the Subaru after hearing this evidence, and was advised that it was “mechanically safe” at the time of the crash. 

Police advised that the crumple zone at the front of the car sustained little impact; most damage occurred between the A and C pillars on the passenger side. 

They also said that the weld and radiator issues would not have affected the vehicle obtaining a warrant of fitness. 

“It is natural to suspect that a mechanical failure led to Josh’s loss of control of the Subaru, given that only a day before the fatal crash a mechanic had recommended that it was so unsafe that it should not be driven,” Borrowdale said. 

“However, on the evidence available, there is no sufficient basis for me to draw that conclusion,” she said. 

“According to police crash analysis, prepared with the benefit of repeated expert independent assessments, the Subaru was warrantable and had no mechanical defects that were capable of being causative of the crash. 

“As a result, I can attribute Maja and Josh’s deaths only to a loss of control of their vehicle on a sweeping bend in the road. 

“I am unable to identify what it was that caused Josh to lose control.” 

Borrowdale said Sanders was described as having been creative, determined and with a deep love of the outdoors. 

Van Hooijdonk had won a Lions Club Young Achiever Award, and was described as a “very sensible and an experienced driver for his age”. 

“The young couple were on the brink of their lives together, supported by their loving families,” the coroner said. 

There was no alcohol or drug involvement in the accident. 

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.