'Careless' truckie: Update 2

-- Desmond Wilson, 45, on trial for running down and killing senior police officer Steve Fitzgerald (pictured above), said there was no cyclist in front of him

I figure that means Wilson just didn't see Fitzgerald as he swung his trailer unit into the 1.5 metre shoulder in which Fitzgerald was cycling.

The bump later noted by Wilson, who thought it was a traffic island, was Fitzgerald being crushed under the wheels of the articulated truck.

Now the courts will decide if Wilson is guilty (he pleaded not guilty) to the charge of careless driving causing death.

Presumably it's not criminal to drive on a shoulder, if you don't hit anyone doing it. So I figure the outcome is down to arguing about whether failing to 'see' is 'careless'.

The area was lit and Fitzgerald's bike had front and rear lights. Hardly facts supporting Fitzgerald's invisibility.

Let's assume Wilson isn't blind and possesses the vision satisfying standards for licensed drivers.

In which case he is careless.

Perhaps his driving directly reflects the attitude of the CEO of NZ Trucking Association, Rodney Auton, who believes cyclist shouldn't be on the road. "Our view is move the cyclists off the road where all will be safer and we are lobbying that with Government constantly"

It's this attitude - cyclists shouldn't be on the road - that is probably most responsible for vehicle/cyclist accidents. Because when that's how drivers think, that's how they drive, and the thin grey line between safety and 'accident' is crossed. And there's never any argument when it's cyclist versus vehicle.

Aussie cyclists threatened with jail

-- What the bloody hell's going on over there? Five years in jail or a $68,000 fine if they kill or seriously injure

What's going on in Australia and why are their cyclists being threatened with jail?

Law makers say cycling is becoming a "legitimate form of transport" and the Government will "come down hard on bad behaviour because there is a real consequence".

They reckon the new penalties will "help police tackle reckless riding by cyclists, and reduce the likelihood of pedestrians, other cyclists or drivers suffering serious injury."

Drivers suffering serious injury, caused by cyclists? Really?

Apparently legislators were spurred into action when cyclist William Raisin-Shaw was fined just $400 for colliding with 77 year-old pedestrian James Gould, who later died.

I'd love to know the penalties dished out to Australian drivers who, in the fifteen years from 1991 to 2005, killed 665 cyclists. How many of these drivers spent time in jail or coughed up $68,000?

If Aussie drivers are penalised anything like Kiwi drivers I bet most of them can't even remember what it feels like to be slapped with a wet buss ticket.

Just the other day Waipu truck driver Ian Donald McLean, 51, who struck and killed a cyclist - his second conviction for careless driving causing death - escaped a jail sentence, and instead received community detention and an order to stay at home every day between 8pm and 7am.

Oh, the suffering. (He did, however, have to perform 200 hours' community work and pay $5000 as reparation to Miss MacDonald's family. And he was disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver's licence for 14 months). Still, doesn't really compare to the dark prison cell awaiting Australian cyclists though, does it.

And Mt Maunganui truck driver Kerry Bradley, 62, who smashed into a promising young cycling star competing in a major road race, destroying her hopes of international success, received 80 hours community work and was disqualified from driving for six months.

It's cyclists being maimed and killed by drivers - not the other way around.

If law makers now consider cycling legitimate transport shouldn't they be passing laws to better protect cyclists?

Why waste time concocting laws policing a group of road users representing largely imagined risks?

Even Texan legislators seem to get it.