Truck driver Desmond Wilson sentenced for killing cyclist

-- You may have missed the two column centimetres

The final chapter of senior police officer Steve Fitzgerald’s life closed earlier this month in the Wellington District Court, where truck driver Desmond Wilson was found guilty of causing the death of Superintendent Fitzgerald through careless driving.

Judge Tom Broadmore said he was satisfied that Wilson had diverted his attention from the road and that Mr Fitzgerald was visible.

Wilson was ordered to pay Fitzgerald’s family $2000 "emotional" reparation and banned from driving for nine months.

'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.

“Careless” truckie faces charge of killing police cyclist

-- Could have been me. Could have been any one of us.

I didn't know traffic safety expert and Police Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald, 57, who was killed last year cycling home from work, on Petone’s Esplanade, by truck driver Desmond Wilson, 45, who will face the charge of careless driving causing death when he appears in Lower Hutt District Court on February 26.

But on hearing news of Fitzgerald's tragic death every cyclist would have felt a grim connection. It’s hard not to shudder and grope for wood knowing that, but for the time and the place, it could have been me. Could’ve been any one of us.

Knowing Fitzgerald’s profession and track record in traffic safety it’s unlikely he was riding irresponsibly. Most 57 year-old office-bound cycle commuters aren’t built for speed, nor do they needlessly flirt with danger. And it’s unlikely that truck driver and now defendant Wilson drove that day looking for trouble, or to take a life.

But something happened on that fateful June day last year and a body of evidence will argue that truck driver Wilson's carelessness killed the police superintendent.

Fitzgerald is one of many cyclists maimed or killed by motorists (2006 Ministry of Transport crash statistics show 9 cyclist deaths and 150 serious injuries. The same report states that motorists have primary responsibility 70 percent of injuries and deaths).

Driver ‘carelessness’ will smite out many more cyclists. Careless: |ˈkerlis| not giving sufficient attention or thought to avoiding harm or errors. What makes people careless? Laziness? Inadequate skill (presumably Wilson was licensed and, at 45, experienced)? A bad attitude? 

Did Wilson de-personalise that anonymous helmeted character with its head down, pedalling along a road built principally for motorised transport? Did he take a chance, show a split-second disregard for the smaller, slower, mildly inconvenient road user? Ignorance flourishes in the warmth of a cab, where the link between disregard and death is permanently fogged, and always on another road, in some other town. 

As both a driver and cyclist I'm keen learn more about the factors behind Fitzgerald's tragic demise. I hope Wilson comes clean. And I hope the followup story gets more than a one-line brief in a midweek newspaper column, for the sake of everyone. 

RIP Steve Fitzgerald.

Touch wood.