One killed, three lives destroyed after alleged drink-driver smashes into taxi

Sunday, 24 December 2017

Nishat Abedi sat on her bed clutching at her five-month-old son Abdul on Saturday afternoon.

She was in shock. Her husband had just been killed by an alleged drink-driver, and her future in New Zealand was in jeopardy.

Abedi is not on a permanent visa, and had taken time out of the workforce to look after her new baby. Her husband, taxi driver Abdul Raheem Fahad Syed, was working long hours to support his young family.

But at 10am, police knocked on her door. Her husband was dead. 

**READ MORE:

* One person killed, two flee scene of Auckland crash

* Horror smash triggers start of the road toll**

'I knew he had been in an accident. I knew something was up,' Abedia said.

Just before 5am, a 20-year-old man drove a Mercedes down Auckland's Symonds St, and slammed into Syed's taxi.

The driver and passenger fled the scene, before being tracked down by police helicopter. The driver has been arrested and several charges laid.

This weekend's crash was the first fatality in the 2017/18 holiday road toll – and sadly typical of New Zealand's rising drink-drive tally. Alcohol and drugs were a contributing factor in 89 deaths, 189 serious injury crashes and 674 minor injury crashes last year.

Most drink-drivers are aged 20 to 24; most drink-drive fatalities occur late at night or in the early morning from Friday night to Sunday morning. And finally, 81 per cent of fatal crashes where alcohol and drugs were a factor were head on crashes, like the Symonds St smash.

Abedi and Syed had known each other for 17 years, school friends first before the relationship became a romantic one. They had been married for three-and-a-half years, and lived in New Zealand for most of their marriage.

'He was our world,' Abedi says. 'He was the best father there ever was. He was a really hard working person.'

She gazes down at her son: 'We were both dependent on him. He was the only one working.'

The couple had moved to New Zealand, from India, so Abedi could study, but after her studies she became pregnant. She is not a permanent resident, and has to reapply for her visa in February.

But her religious beliefs mean that once she is back in India for the funeral, she will have to stay inside the family house for months. 

'What am I supposed to do?'

Family friend Mustafa Mohammad was one of the many people comforting Abedi on Saturday.

Syed was a good man, one that loved his wife and son.  He would make sure his son was asleep before he would go off to work in the taxi, Mohammad said.

'He didn't do anything wrong, he was just in his car, and now he is dead,' Mohammad said.

The driver had left behind a lot of devastation and pain, he said. 'I hope that driver knows he didn't just destroy one life this morning.  There are five or six people whose lives have been destroyed.'

'How's the family supposed to live and pay for a funeral and to get the dead body to India?'

Approachewd by Stuff, Minister of Immigration Iain Lees-Galloway on Saturday night provided the family with urgent contact details for one of his senior officials at Immigration NZ.

Others, too, are coming to the family's aid. After hearing about Abedi's plight, fellow taxi driver Bhupinder Singh is donating $2000 of Uber income to the family.

'I just heard the news on Saturday morning, I was shocked when I heard they have a five-month-old baby. I had to do something.'

Although Singh will have to tighten his belt, in giving one month's income, he feels it's the right thing to do. 'I know the pain of the family when accidents happen.'