Young driver jailed for horror crash
Fifteen victim impact statements were read to a packed High Court at Timaru yesterday during 20-year-old Tyreese Stuart Fleming’s sentencing to 21⁄2 years in jail on five charges of dangerous driving causing death last year. The statements included those from six parents, two siblings and three grandparents of the five who lost their lives. Fleming was 19 at the time of the South Canterbury crash, driving on a three-day-old restricted licence, and had been drinking when the car he was driving slammed into a power pole at the intersection of Meadows and Seadown roads at a speed of 110-115kmh shortly before 7.30pm on August 7, 2021. The impact split the car in half, killing all his passengers – Javarney Drummond, 15, Niko Hill, 15, Andrew Goodger, 15, Jack Wallace, 16, and Joseff McCarthy, 16 – instantly. Fleming pleaded guilty in the High Court at Timaru on April 5 to five charges of dangerous driving causing death which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment. 1: Do birds sweat?
Yes; or no.
2: Which of these planets has rings?
Mercury; Saturn; Venus; or Mars.
3: Termites are known to eat ......
Plastic; wood; glass; or soil. 4: Where was this photograph taken?
Peru; Russia; Egypt; or the Netherlands.
5: The new Matariki public holiday falls in which month this year? September; June; August; or July.
6: Every year in Gloucester, England, a competition is held where competitors must roll which item down a hill? A tractor tyre; a wheel of cheese; a pumpkin; or a marble.
7: On St Patrick’s Day, people often dress up in which colour? White; blue; green; or red.
8: Except for Papa Smurf, all smurfs wear which colour hat? Red; blue; or white.
9: Which of these is added to bread to help it rise? Yeast; oil; flour; or water.
10: Winnie the Pooh’s favourite food is marmalade.
True or false?
Tuatara are among the longestlived cold-blooded animals, new research into reptiles and amphibians has found.
The study, which looked at the ageing rates of 77 of the coldblooded four-legged animals, found tuatara had a 137-year life span, Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington said in a statement.
In comparison, turtles lived for about 39 years, crocodiles for 21, salamanders for 10, and frogs for eight years.
Data on tuatara are from a 60-year study of a population of the reptiles on the small, rocky
North Brother Island in Cook Strait.
‘‘Once tuatara are of adult size, they are very slow to age,’’ study co-author Nicky Nelson, professor of conservation biology at Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington, said.
Gathering the data involved a huge effort by researchers, including nights spent searching for tuatara and catching them by hand, Nelson said.
Findings of the international study may help researchers understand the ageing rates of New Zealand’s other reptiles. The research highlighted the importance of long-term studies, particularly for species such as tuatara that live for more than 100 years.
‘‘We’ve studied the population on North Brother Island for decades. Several generations of researchers have contributed to the work and it’s given us one of the longest datasets used in this international comparison,’’ Nelson said.
Results of the study suggested the rate at which reptiles aged increased with mean environmental temperature, which was an important finding given global warming.
Long life was also associated with physical or chemical traits, such as having a shell or producing venom. The study authors found such ‘‘protective traits’’ enabled animals to age more slowly and live longer.