Cigarette may have cost family a home
A PERTH girl has died in a crash at a junior drag racing event while trying to get her licence, just three days after reaching the minimum age to compete.
Anita Board, 8, suffered severe injuries in the crash at Perth Motorplex in Kwinana on Saturday afternoon and was rushed to hospital in a critical condition.
She lost control of her vehicle at the end of her solo run and crashed into a cement barrier. No other dragsters were on the track. She had turned eight on Thursday, the minimum age to be allowed to race under Australian National Drag Racing Association rules.
The motorsports- loving Board family said on its Facebook page that she celebrated her birthday by going karting to get more practice before attempting to get her licence.
The page shows Anita with a 210CC purple dragster called Pony Power emblazoned with the My Little Pony character Rainbow Dash, while her older sister Zara has a blue- streaked dragster named Night Fury.
Before Anita’s death in Princess Margaret Hospital yesterday, their father Ian J Board posted a photo of the girls in a car, saying: “Our angel setting ( out) on what was meant to be day to remember for all the right reasons. My heart in a million pieces atm.”
The siblings were among 26 entrants for the Goldenstates Junior Dragster event. Racing was temporarily suspended while police investigated.
Under Australian National Drag Racing Association rules, racers aged between eight and 10 must not exceed 96km/ h, but it is understood the top speeds of vehicles driven by beginners are much lower.
Mike Sprylan of West Coast Junior Dragsters said it wasn’t unusual to see eight- year- olds competing in the sport. A PROTESTER arrested at Senator Ian Macdonald’s Townsville office will appear in court this month after being charged with disobeying a police direction.
Dr Bill Laing led a group of 12 people to the senator’s office to protest against the Australian Government’s treatment of offshore refugees on Friday afternoon.
He read a manifesto in the Denham St office to a closed door after staff refused to listen saying they were “too busy”. Mr Macdonald was himself on a factfinding mission in Papua New Guinea.
Dr Laing said they tried to raise awareness about the closure of Manus Island detention centre. He said police told them to move and as leader of the group, when he refused, he was arrested. He will appear in Townsville Magistrates Court on November 24. KENNEDY MP Bob Katter says the crossbench will move immediately on a royal commission into banks following the resignation of Liberal MP John Alexander.
Mr Alexander resigned on Saturday after revealing he “most likely” holds UK citizenship, leaving the Coalition clinging to 73 seats in the 150- seat House of Representatives, not counting the Speaker. Mr Katter ( right) said the crossbenchers now held the balance of power and would move quickly on a royal commission.
“For technical reasons, it will be the second week of parliament, in my opinion, that we will be moving,” Mr Katter said. “If the Government tries to play any silly game and circumvent the will of the people, the majority of that parliament, then they are walking on extremely dangerous ground.” A BOY smoking in his room is believed to have caused an inferno which destroyed a house and left a family destitute.
Police believe ashes from the cigarette sparked a fire on a mattress.
The fire through the and it was flames.
The inhabitants, a threeweek- old baby boy, five- yearold girl, 13- year- old boy, 17year- old girl and their mother, escaped only with the clothes on their backs.
A fundraising effort is now underway in Townsville to support them.
At 6.17pm on Saturday emergency services received multiple 000 calls reporting the house was on fire.
Four fire crews rushed to the scene and at first it was unknown if anyone was inside the building.
A Queensland Fire and Emergency Services spokesman said the fire was under control by 7.10pm.
Firefighters remained on the scene until 10.25pm to dampen down hot spots.
Townsville police district duty officer Senior Sergeant Matt Lyons said the scene was guarded by police over- soon spread Garbutt home gutted by the night. Scientific and forensic police officers examined the scene yesterday morning.
The 13- year- old boy assisted police with inquiries yesterday but he was not charged.
Relatives of the family have already started a drive to assist them.
“If anyone has baby boy clothes they can donate to them and size 5- 6 kids girl clothes and adult clothes for my aunty and size 10 girl clothes for my cousin would be really great,” said Meeka Mia Edwards.
“They have thing in the fire.
“Anything to help them out would be wonderful even furniture for when they get a new place as well.”
Ms Edwards can be contacted on 0488 103 347.
A GoFundMe page has also been started by Natalie Goodwin.
“All they walked away with was their clothes on their backs,” she said.
“Any help would be appreciated being so close to Christmas.”
Ms Goodwin hopes to raise $ 10,000 for the family.
A house in Field St, Bowen was also destroyed by fire early yesterday. The blaze started about 3.20am.
No one was believed to be in the house at the time of the blaze.
Fire investigators will work with police to determine the cause of the fire. lost every- A DOZEN bureaucrats are standing in the way of a crackdown on dodgy financial planners, demanding the Federal Government save their jobs instead of setting up a new watchdog.
Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer will introduce legislation this week to create the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, which will be given powers to fast- track complaints that now take more than two years to resolve. It would increase compensation to families and small businesses who have received bad advice on financial services and retirement savings.
But the Community and Public Sector Union is against the move despite representing 12 employees at the existing tribunal, which will be abolished.