Dead German Cyclist Named As Mia Susanne Pusch - Updated

Police have released the name of the 19 year old German touring cyclist (see previous post ) who died in a road collision in Bulls Manawatu: Mia Susanne Pusch.

Mia had been in NZ on a cycling holiday since late October and was travelling towards Wanganui when she was struck by a truck heading in the same direction, according to a police statement.

Mia kept a public blog of her journey through New Zealand (translation) on the bike she'd called "pinkie". In it she spoke about being constantly harassed by drivers honking their horns at her - sometimes as by way of a greeting, often accompanied by a thumbs up sign. These positive honkers appeared to be particularly frequent in underpowered and overloaded vehicles, people on vacation, since the owners had generally  learned that they didn't need to hurry.

Then there were the less positive types - the negative tooters driven by the importance of an "incredible race against time". Those who were fond of using a loud horn when a cyclist got in their way and slowed them down. The type that would sneak up at high speed to well within her safety zone (0.5 -1.0 metres)  and then overtake with horn blaring, leaving her shaking with adrenaline. 


Her mother is understandably distraught at her daughter's death and we'd like to extend our sincere condolences to her for her unimaginable loss, it's every parent's worst nightmare to lose a child in such a way. 

Update 1

We have discovered that Mia isn't the only German born cyclist to have died in New Zealand in the last 5 months. Gifted post grad student Jens Richardon, who'd been living in NZ for around 10 years and well used to NZ road conditions and drivers, was killed in a hit and run whilst  cycling in Springston-Leeston Rd, about 45 kilometres southwest of Christchurch in August of last year. link

Cycling cannot be considered to be a safe pursuit in New Zealand when there are so many aggressive hoons owning the road. We are instantly reminded of the awful death in October of North Shore doctor Graham Robinson who was struck and killed under similar cirumstances whilst cycling outside of Helensville. The driver of the white Toyota Hillux sped off after hitting him and police have yet to track him down, despite having an excellent description of the vehicle.

We also recall the 'Tamaki carnage' a month earlier when a cyclist was critically injured and three others hurt when a car ploughed into a pack of 20 riders on Tamaki Drive, Auckland. News reports at the time stated

"Witnesses to the crash said the vehicle was turning from Cliff Rd on to Tamaki Dr when it collided with the pack, who were riding from the waterfront towards Vale Rd. They said the car appeared to slow down briefly before speeding towards the cyclists.

"She accelerated into the middle of the group, just cleaned the guys up," said John Cooney. The driver was "roundly abused" by the riders when she stopped. Police inspector Willie Taylor said the driver appeared to have driven through a compulsory stop before colliding with the group."

Heather McCracken's report concluded with details of other cycling fatalities and high number of injuries on NZ's roads during 2009

* Fatal cost of riding your bike
Seven cyclists have been killed so far this year on New Zealand roads.
Last year 10 riders were killed and almost 900 injured, with most crashes occurring at intersections on urban roads.
Last weekend cyclist Frank van Kampen, 46, was killed after being struck by a car near Otaki.
A 34-year-old cyclist was killed last month in a hit-and-run accident near Leeston, Christchurch.
Another Christchurch crash took the life of a 19-year-old cyclist in July.
Two cyclists have been killed in the Bay of Plenty, one in a May accident at a Mt Maunganui roundabout, and another following a crash involving a logging truck near Te Puke in March.
Two Dunedin cyclists have also lost their lives - one after colliding with a car in the city in March, and another in a crash outside of Mosgiel in June."

Pretty awful figures for such a small country. NZ does have the worlds highest car ownership - 720 per 1000 people, even more than the United States' 675 per 1000 people (in 2005) and when that's combined with intolerance towards other road users the weaker and more vulnerable need to be better protected than they are at present.

We suggest a national network of safe cycling routes, in which bike riders are protected from collision hazards with motor vehicles and more publicity given to visitors about which roads are dangerous for cyclists, so that they may plan out their holidays around those routes before they leave home.

Something has to be done to re-educate NZ drivers too, perhaps a national advertising campaign to make them more aware of the difficulties cyclists face and that the roads are for all to share, a revision of the driving test and tougher penalties for dangerous driving causing death or injury.

For other information about NZ poor road death and injury statistics see "Road death toll increases" and "NZ's roads described as killing fields"

See also 1.5m to Survive: 1.5 metres of  space for NZ's 1.5 million cyclists 


Related post : Another German Cyclist Killed In March


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Quality Of Life Index 2010

Many New Zealanders will be disappointed to hear that the country has only been placed fifth in this year's International Living magazine's Quality of Life index. Australia, its nearest and dearest neighbor has been placed second with France taking the top accolade.
Top 10 list
1. France
2. Australia
3. Switzerland
4. Germany
5. New Zealand
6. Luxembourg
7. USA
8. Belgium
9. Canada
10. Italy

We've been through the individual rankings for each of the parameters the 194 countries were measured against: Cost of Living, Culture and Leisure, Economy, Environment, Freedom, Health, Infrastructure, Safety and Risk, and Climate and we've compared NZ's scores with other countries and their placement on the list shown here.

Cost of living
63rd. NZ's worst individual score! Despite NZ marketing often itself as having a low cost of living it ranked the same as Canada, Panama and Costa Rica.

Leisure and culture
17th on the ranked list, putting it on a par with a host of countries including Australia, South Korea and the UK.

Economy
NZ is often perceived as a financially astute and secure country but it wallows in at 25th place, way behind Australia, Singapore and the United States, comparable to the UK which is still in recession and Brazil.

Environment
Surely NZ should score well on this I hear you ask? not as well as you think - only 29th, Brunei takes the top honours, whilst NZ scores the same as Zimbabwe, Cuba and a few others.

Freedom
We're all expecting a high ranking here and plenty of countries get full marks, including NZ.

Health
NZ does well with its health score and is placed 9th alongside Belgium.
 
Infrastructure
19th, could do better. Australia, Canada and the UK (all compete with NZ for skilled migrants) are placed higher. NZ fares only slightly better than Singapore and not as well as Denmark.
 
Risk and Safety
Most countries not currently fighting a war on their own soil do well here and score 100%

Climate
Zimbabwe takes top honors, NZ is comparable to Japan at joint 25th and the US, all are lower than Australia, Italy and France.

In summary, other than sharing the top scores for Freedom and Risk and Safety with many other countries, NZ seems to score its best marks for Health. The countries that do better are, France with an astonishing 100%, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Norway, Germany, Malta and Japan.



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Crime In Palmerston North

The good people of Palmerston North seem to be having a hard time of it at the hands of their criminal element, just weeks ago it was revealed that the town suffers at least one sex assault every week.

Palmerston North is a town which has endured various shootings , a stoush  at a school in Feilding, a hammer attack on teenager Blake Coleman, knife crimes and public humiliation when it was discovered that its Wikipedia page had been 'edited' to remove negative references to gang violence and crime.

We decided to look at the town's current listing on Wikipedia and found this under the crime and policing heading - despite its appalling sex assault record and women warned to be vigilant whilst walking home alone over the Christmas period (when it was likely the attack rate would increase) so much for "satisfaction with safety in public places at night":

"Palmerston North is the main centre of the New Zealand Police's Central District.^[15] Palmerston North has improved from 36th to 7th in a list of the best places for low crime figures (2008). Overall, crime dropped by 10% in the past year (2008). This is a result of organisations working together on prevention and enforcement strategies. Violent crime has increased by 5% in the past year but this is compared with an 11% rise nationally. Satisfaction with safety in public places at night has remained at its 2007 level.^[16]"

Now we have the sad news that a 63 year old man has been beaten and robbed in his own home by 'several men' (some may call that a gang, but not in Palmerston North) He was injured in the attack, which took place in the early hours of this morning, and has been taken to hospital with light to moderate injuries. The police haven't said what weapons, if any, were used. Thank goodness he wasn't more seriously injured but he must still be very shaken after his ordeal.

The injured man was at an address in Waldegrave St,  which is about 2.5 km from Heretaunga Street where a shooting took place in September and 2.1 km from  another shooting on Grey Street in June


Our thoughts are with the injured man and we wish him a speedy, full recovery. We hope the thugs are caught soon.

See also: "Police kept busy with young teens":  About eight teenage boys attacked two men and two women in their early 20s, in Linton St near The Brewer's Apprentice, about 1.30am on Sunday 14 Feb 2010.

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