Two cyclists lose lives to truck driver
A Christchurch truck driver has been convicted of causing the death of a cyclist for the second time.
In a written decision yesterday, Christchurch District Court Judge Gary MacAskill found David Peter Connell, 51, failed to recognise he had to check and give way to cyclists in a cycle lane going straight ahead on his left.
Taiwanese cyclist Ming-Chih Hsieh, 33, was killed instantly when Connell swung left, crushing him beneath the wheels of a large B-train articulated truck at a Christchurch intersection on September 29, 2014.
Connell had pleaded not guilty to the charge of careless driving causing death at a trial in June.
Judge MacAskill said the charge was proven and remanded the case for sentencing on October 11.
It was the second cyclist death Connell was responsible for, after he crashed a truck into Stephen Craig Avery on State Highway 1 on the Kapiti Coast in 2005.
Connell admitted a charge of careless driving causing Avery’s death. He was fined $2000 and disqualified from driving for nine months.
Lesley Avery said she hoped Connell was never allowed in a truck again after the deaths of her brother and Hsieh.
‘‘I was disgusted, absolutely disgusted in the people that hired him, that let him get behind the wheel, supposedly knowing that he had killed someone. We never got an apology from him, nothing.
‘‘I really think my father deserves an apology, it really aged him.’’ Her brother’s death ‘‘ripped our family to pieces’’, she said.
Her mother, who died last year, never got over the death of her oldest child. To find he has not got away with this one, it’s absolutely fantastic.’’
Avery’s father, Warwick, was ‘‘relieved’’ to hear Connell was found guilty.
‘‘It’s such a shame that someone had to die from the same negligence that killed Stephen. How can one person do that twice?’’
Judge MacAskill said Connell was a professional and experienced driver of heavy vehicles.
‘‘He was very familiar with the tractor unit and was aware of its blind spots or blind zones. When the green light showed, he was aware that he did not know whether there was a cyclist in the cycle lane. Yet he took no precaution against that risk – none at all.
‘‘The Transit New Zealand photographs show that, if the defendant had waited for even a couple of seconds, Mr Hsieh would have come into his view.
‘‘The defendant’s carelessness caused Mr Hsieh’s death.’’