29 July 2012

‘Friends of Jane Bishop’ prepared to take on Auckland Transport

Road safety advocate Bevan Woodward has asked Auckland Transport to withdraw the report it provided to the Coroner’s inquest that blames cyclist Jane Bishop for her own death. If it chooses not to, then a ‘Friends of Jane Bishop’ campaign will commence until her name is cleared.

Mr Woodward says “The report is highly flawed, each of the reasons it gives for Jane Bishop being responsible for her own death is wrong. It’s no wonder Auckland Transport was refusing to make a copy of this report public.”

Mr Woodward first alerted Auckland City Council to the unsafe road layout outside the Kelly Tarlton’s corner on Tamaki Drive in early 2006, not long after Council had changed the road layout. Council took no action to rectify the road layout until two days after Jane Bishop’s death in November 2010.

Initially Police laid charges against the motorist who had exited his vehicle before the incident, the case was dismissed by the Judge as clearly not being the motorist’s fault.

Dr Tim Stevenson, the forensic crash investigator who provided expert evidence at the trial of the motorist says: “In many of the crashes I have investigated there are a number of contributory factors. Often, it is difficult to identify the main contributory or causative factor. In this case, however, it is my belief that the road layout was the most significant factor in the death of Jane Bishop.”

Mr Woodward says “The reaction from the public has been overwhelmingly in support of clearing Jane Bishop’s name. It’s now up to Auckland Transport to do the right thing and withdraw the flawed report, otherwise we will escalate this matter and do whatever it takes to ensure Jane Bishop’s name is eventually cleared.

ENDS

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