Twenty-year-old Boston University student Stephen Houseman arrives at an Auckland court after a deadly car crash last month.
Houseman was driving a van which crashed in the middle of New Zealand's North Island, resulting in the death of three of his classmates.
On Wednesday the American student pleaded guilty to a total of seven charges - three of careless driving causing death and four of careless driving causing injury.
The lawyer for the defence said her client accepted full responsibility, but wanted the court to know he had asked his passengers to wear seatbelts.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) DEFENCE LAWYER MARIE DHYBERG:
"He did take all steps possible to ensure that the people in his car had seatbelts on that day."
The judge convicted and discharged Houseman on each charge, disqualified him from driving for six months, and ordered him to pay over 700 U.S. dollars in court costs.
The three students died when the van they were in drifted off the paved road on to gravel, overturned and rolled three times.
The dead, who were not wearing seatbelts, were flung out of the vehicle when it rolled.
Simon Hanna, Reuters
