Seatbelt could have saved driver

Wearing a seatbelt could have saved the life of Owen Lilley, Levin coroner Phil Comber has found.

Mr Lilley's young life was cut short when he was involved in a road accident on State Highway 57 near Shannon in March last year. His was the only car involved.

Toxicology reports revealed that Mr Lilley, 22, had both alcohol and cannabis in his system at the time of the accident, revealing a level of 145 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

The legal limit is 80mg.

When police arrived at the scene, Mr Lilley was located 20 metres away from his crashed Toyota stationwagon. He died minutes later in an ambulance from multiple head wounds.

Serious crash unit senior constable Les Maddaford said at last month's inquest that a scene analysis had shown no evidence of "anything untoward". It appeared Mr Lilley had veered off the road and struck a raised driveway entrance, flipping his wagon, he said. Mr Lilley had not been wearing a seatbelt, and was catapulted out of it by the impact.

Mr Maddaford said had Mr Lilley been wearing a seatbelt he would not have been thrown from the wagon. And while he would have still been injured, his injuries could have been survivable.

This prompted Mr Comber's finding yesterday that the immediate cause of death was Mr Lilley's failure to wear a seatbelt, coupled with his intoxication and drug use.

Given the nature of the accident, no "useful" recommendations could be made, Mr Comber said.

"Fortunately no innocent parties were caught up in this situation."