Police renew appeal for help on fourth anniversary of cyclist's death

Police investigating the hit-and-run death of a Helensville doctor are
appealing for the person who killed Dr Graham Robinson, or anyone else who
has information on the case to come forward.

Monday the 14th of October marks four years to the day that 62 year-old Dr
Robinson, a keen cyclist, was killed.

At 8.50am on Wednesday 14 October 2009 Dr Robinson and his friend Dr Peter
Kalinowski were biking south along Peak Road in Helensville. The weather on
that day was fine and sunny and the pair were out enjoying a recreational
ride.

Dr Robinson was cycling in front of his friend, Dr Kalinowski. As they biked
along, Dr Kalinowski heard a car approaching from behind, and as many
cyclists do, he called out to his friend to warn him that a car was coming.
Dr Robinson moved further left towards the side of the road.

The car passed Dr Kalinowski, using the right hand side of the road to
overtake, and then sharply veered its way back into the left lane. As it
passed Dr Robinson it either clipped the front wheel of his bike or came so
close that the wind disturbance caused Dr Robinson to take evasive action and
he was propelled over the handlebars and onto the road.

Although Dr Robinson was wearing a helmet, he suffered a severe head injury
and died the following day at North Shore Hospital.

The driver of the vehicle did not stop, and is yet to be identified.

The car was described as an older model white ute, with an off-white canopy.
It had the word "TOYOTA" written in large, bold black writing across the
back, under the canopy.

Over the years a number of people have approached Police with information,
however none of the leads have resulted in the driver being located. Checks
of around 500 similar vehicles that were identified as being in the Rodney
area at the time also failed to provide any further clues.

"It's been four years and it's very frustrating that our enquiries haven't
revealed the person responsible. We would love to be able to provide Dr
Robinson's family with some answers and bring whoever did this to justice.
The person who was driving on that day will know that they hit someone and I
would appeal to their conscience- it must be very difficult to live with
yourself knowing you were responsible for something like this. Perhaps the
passage of time has tweaked their conscience, or they have told someone what
happened. This was a family man, a good friend, and a respected member of the
community who was killed and we'd really appeal to anyone who has any
information to do the decent thing and give this man's friends and family the
answers they deserve".

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Senior Sergeant Brett
Batty on 09 426 4555 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell:
On What John Banks And Nick Smith Have In Common

The defence that John Banks has been offering to the charges of electoral fraud – that he didn’t read the document he signed, and therefore lacked the necessary criminal intent – is a fairly standard example of political business as usual.

At a time when political power is being centralised downtown in the Executive, responsibility is being re-located to the suburbs. The Beehive seeks to operate as a blame free, shame free environment. At all times, plausible deniability is to be maintained.

Being able to put distance between the Minister and the actions/outcomes/political fallout of policy is not simply the last desperate resort of scoundrels, but the first resort of the foot soldiers in ministerial service... More>>