23 Feb 2015

Name suppression over crash that killed child

4:03 pm on 23 February 2015

A Chinese man has had his name suppressed because of fears for his safety following a crash at the weekend in which a five-year-old girl was killed.

The girl's parents and siblings and four Chinese tourists were taken to hospital after a station wagon collided head-on with a rented ute on State Highway 1, near Moeraki, on Saturday afternoon.

Police have named the five-year-old Oamaru girl who died as Ruby Jay Marris.

Court documents name the girl's parents, Tristan and Kimberley, and two sisters aged nine and seven, as well as a Chinese tourist as also seriously injured.

A 32-year-old man appeared in the Dunedin District Court this morning and was charged with dangerous driving causing death and five counts of dangerous driving causing injury.

The man, who is from from Beijing, was granted name suppression until his next court appearance after his lawyer argued feared for his personal safety because a little girl had been killed.

The man has been ordered to surrender his passport and driver's licence, and cannot drive or leave New Zealand.

He has been bailed to an address in Auckland and will appear in court again in a fortnight