A former construction transport company boss whose runaway truck killed a roadworker has been sentenced to prison for manslaughter, after prosecutors argued his gross recklessness needed to serve as a deterrent to others.

Victim Johnathon Walters was working a night shift on a Remuera Rd in May 2024 when he was hit by Ashik Ali’s vehicle.

The truck’s brakes had failed – hardly a surprise given its long history of non-compliance – and had rolled downhill roughly 40m before going through the area where Walters and others were cutting through the road surface, likely with ear protection.

The truck, filled with a full payload of chip seal roading metal, weighed 20 tonnes.

Instead of waiting to see if anyone had been hurt after the truck came to a stop after about 400m, Ali fled the scene in the vehicle – its windscreen by that point dislodged from hitting two poles and a tree.

While imposing a sentence today, Justice Graham Lang described the death as “an absolutely tragic and completely avoidable event”.

Company owner Ashik Ali appears in the High Court at Auckland for sentencing after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Photo / Michael Craig

“This was not a one-off incident,” the judge said, referring to the vehicle’s appalling, years-long history of non-compliance with regulations and unroadworthiness.

“You can consider yourself fortunate that nobody else was killed as a result of your actions.”

As the judge spoke, members of Walters’ family sobbed in the crowded courtroom gallery. Ali, as he had throughout the hearing, looked down into his lap.

‘A steady presence’

Before filing into the courtroom for today’s sentencing, Walters’ family sang a waiata in his honour that could be heard through the courthouse. The judge later apologised for refusing a haka inside the courtroom, citing security reasons and the last-minute nature of the request.

Walters had been the eldest of eight siblings and had taken over the role as “a pillar of our whānau” after their parents died, his loved ones recalled in a series of emotional victim impact statements.

He was remembered as a family-oriented man known for his strong work ethic and kindness that “touched everyone around him”.

“He was always there for me when I needed him,” said sister Karin Fraser, describing through tears how she rushed to be by her brother’s side at the hospital but never got to tell him goodbye.

She described her brother as a “loving father, a devoted uncle ... and a steady presence for our tamariki” who was looked up to for his “guidance, love, laughter and support”.

Harry Tautuhi described his brother as “the best person I’ve ever known” – someone who always did what was right and who gave his whole heart to making sure his family was cared for.

“We miss him every day – his voice, his presence, his light,” he said.

Several family members said the case had caused deep concerns for others working in the roading industry, leaving them anxious that another whānau might be left to suffer the same pain.

“To lose my brother because of someone else’s carelessness and negligence is unbearable,” said sibling Sidney Tautuhi. “Jonathan’s death has left a void that can never be filled.”

Flagrant non-compliance

The truck’s many defects would not have been a surprise to Ali, police and prosecutors have said.

Ali, now 56, had bought the previously owned Isuzu CXZ 72J in November 2017 and it was issued its first pink sticker – barring it from being used on the road – just two months later.

“The VSO [vehicle safety officer] recorded the truck was in poor condition and should not have been on the road,” the summary of facts states of the January 2018 traffic stop.

A subsequent May 2019 inspection “established the brakes were dangerous and the vehicle should not have been operating”.

Police investigate the scene on May 8, 2024, after roadworker Johnathon Walters was fatally hit by a runaway truck on a job site in Remuera, Auckland. Photo / Hayden Woodward

The company director was contacted by the New Zealand Transport Agency the following year, with officials expressing concern his fleet was not being maintained to a safe standard and the company was not paying road user fees.

The suspicions were confirmed following a July 2020 inspection of the entire fleet. As a result, Ali was ordered to obtain certificates of fitness every three months.

The following month, Ali told authorities he was addressing the truck’s brake issues. But when police again pulled over the truck in Otara in March 2021, it again failed a spot inspection.

“This truck was still subject to the pink sticker that was issued on January 30, 2018,” court documents state. “The sticker had been unlawfully removed.

“The inspection identified serious safety defects, including a cracked right front wheel, loose wheel nuts, the second axle differential was leaking oil, an air leak behind the cab [the air reservoir supplies air to the brake and suspension systems], insecure batteries, a stop light not working, and worn brushes on the tipper arm. The overall safety appearance of the truck was described as very bad by the VSO.”

More non-operation stickers were placed on the truck and the driver was issued a written notice warning that the vehicle should not be operated again unless on “a direct route to a place of repair”.

As a result, Ali assured authorities that he no longer intended to use the vehicle – choosing to scrap it rather than get it repaired. But instead, it appears, he simply changed the plates and kept on using it.

The work site on Remuera's Victoria Ave where Ashik Ali's truck fatally hit a road worker in May 2024. Photo / Michael Craig

By the time of the fatality, the truck had been unregistered for two years and the last warrant of fitness had been issued three-and-a-half years prior.

The sticker identifying the truck as unusable had been partially removed along with the last certificate of fitness, from nearly five years earlier.

A post-crash inspection revealed many of the defects that had been identified in 2021 still plagued the vehicle.

‘Sense of desperation’

Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC noted there was a significant chasm between the sentences suggested by the Crown and by himself. Similar cases, he suggested, have resulted in non-custodial terms involving reparation payments and community work.

“Obviously, Mr Ali never contemplated that his actions on that day might result in such a loss,” Mansfield said, describing his client as now receiving welfare after having closed his business following the crash.

“Mr Ali was in a bind,” the lawyer added. “He couldn’t afford to keep his truck roadworthy, and he also couldn’t afford to turn away work.”

Ron Mansfield KC. Photo / Michael Craig

It was that “sense of desperation” that led to Ali’s bad decision to use the truck that night, Mansfield added.

He described his client as a quiet, shy and humble man who “made a grave mistake”.

“He should have thought it through. He didn’t,” Mansfield said. “He is extremely remorseful.”

Crown prosecutor Clare Antenen, meanwhile, said the death wasn’t the result of a single error in judgment. She outlined the vehicle’s history and Ali’s “complete disregard” of orders by police to keep it off the road.

“The death of Mr Walters was clearly avoidable,” she said, adding that imprisonment would hold Ali responsible while also serving “as a deterrent to others who drive unroadworthy vehicles ... that have the ability to kill”.

‘Significantly more serious’

Justice Lang ultimately agreed with prosecutors.

He noted that the two manslaughter cases cited by the defence as having resulted in community work had involved one-off negligence – a faulty helicopter inspection and a hang-glider who failed to check his passenger’s safety strap.

“I regard your offences as significantly more serious,” he said.

He also noted that Ali’s immediate reaction had been to flee the scene rather than help with the workplace chaos he caused.

Justice Graham Lang. Photo / Michael Craig

“I accept that you did not know Mr Walters had been injured ... however, that does not relieve you of your obligation,” Justice Lang added.

His financial desperation at the time “does not mitigate the offending in any way at all”, the judge said, describing Ali’s actions at the time as having fallen “well short” of what a reasonable person would have done in the circumstances.

The judge ordered a four-year starting point before allowing reductions for his guilty plea and remorse.

The end sentence was three years’ imprisonment, with an additional order that Ali pay $20,000 to Walters’ family in emotional harm reparation.

It was a death that had “catastrophic consequences” for Walters’ family and colleagues, and it never should have happened, the judge repeated.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.