why?

Posted on 06-07-2011 12:55 | By The author of this comment has been removed.

why do the police keep stopping on these no stopping lines if we have to abide so should they they are not there for police to stop people on im sure the officer could have waited 1 min till they were past the intersection to preform his duty now hes no different from anyone else and should be ticketed and charged for carelessly using his mtr vehicle eh

Sad

Posted on 06-07-2011 13:03 | By Colleen Spiro

Very sad. Just wanted to say I was coming along Hewletts Road the other day and I saw a scooter in the BUS LANE the whole length of the road....Is this legal???? Should they not be travelling in the same lane as cars.

think !

Posted on 06-07-2011 13:27 | By Leigh

unfortunately the police can only stop, where the person who they pulled over, stops.....

Road Rules

Posted on 06-07-2011 13:37 | By Myword

Dont blame the police! Road rules are that a following vehicle must be able to stop in half the distance to the vehicle in front and be travelling at a speed suitable for the conditions. If you cannot see ahead slow down! I feel for the scotter rider but that is not a reason to blame anyone else

Bus Lanes

Posted on 06-07-2011 13:42 | By Rik

the bus lane on hewletts road is for buses bikes and motorbikes. not cars. Police car had pulled over a ute and thats why he was parked on yellow lines.

more harm than good

Posted on 06-07-2011 15:31 | By The author of this comment has been removed.

Cop was illegally and dangerously parked . give him a ticket and take it out of his wages .Ive been pulled over for 5km over the speed limit ( along with dozens of others that day)going down 13th onto waihi rd and was made to stop on yellow lines where 2lanes merge into one. Their revenue collecting was more dangerous than the speed they were collecting for . If they have to endanger other road users to do their job , then thy are not doing it right . Lets do a u turn and go chase that motorbike going too fast , mean time they kill the the poor bugger on the bike going the other way .

more harm than good

Posted on 06-07-2011 15:31 | By The author of this comment has been removed.

Cop was illegally and dangerously parked . give him a ticket and take it out of his wages .Ive been pulled over for 5km over the speed limit ( along with dozens of others that day)going down 13th onto waihi rd and was made to stop on yellow lines where 2lanes merge into one. Their revenue collecting was more dangerous than the speed they were collecting for . If they have to endanger other road users to do their job , then thy are not doing it right . Lets do a u turn and go chase that motorbike going too fast , mean time they kill the the poor bugger on the bike going the other way .

According to the BOP TIMES

Posted on 06-07-2011 16:37 | By waiknot

"Scooter and ute collide on Maunganui Rd", you got to wonder do the BOP Times send out any reporters. so often their guess is wrong

RESPONSIBILITY

Posted on 06-07-2011 17:09 | By The author of this comment has been removed.

I agree with Myword. You are responsible for the front of your vehicle, therefore your vision and speed need to be safe enough. If it were not a police car (stopped because of someone needed pulling over) it could have been a broken down car, or anything. Drive to the conditions. Police are only doing their job.

Police always having cars pranged

Posted on 06-07-2011 18:17 | By Hebegeebies

No idea who was in the right or wrong here but Police invariably pull vehicles over in areas where it is illegal or dangerous to park.Police call the shots and could ensure the pulling off the road was safe and did not endanger other motorists.Must surely be a Police directive to do that & if there is not then that says it all.

Police will investigate Police again

Posted on 06-07-2011 18:21 | By onthelevel

Looking at the video and photos on this it looks like blue and red lights flashing on cop car are very dim day time in all, do they have like standby flashing sequences ? also cop car appeared to be parked on a corner and on a yellow no parking line and in the lane it's self, there appears to be plenty of room for the car to be parked off the road completly as there is a mountable kerb there. cop could off moved off road and on loud hailer moved the vehicle he had stopped. Having said all that, these small scooters ought be banned from the road, they all ride as far left as possible because they feel vulmerable as they struggle to even achieve 50kph sometimes, accidents waiting to happen I reckon.damn shame tho he did well to be still riding at 83. RIP

Re onthelevel

Posted on 06-07-2011 18:27 | By The author of this comment has been removed.

onthelevel, good observations, this is why motorbike riders should "hold their lane" and not be intimidated by traffic that follow too close or think, because they're bigger, should be in front of them. If you are cowering in the left, where there is no real room for error, you stand every chance of getting snotted by unexpected obstacles at the road side. Very sad day for this family and scooters riders everywhere. Our thoughts are with the police, too, just doing their job and trying to keep the streets safer for all of us.

Police bashing

Posted on 06-07-2011 18:27 | By Leigh

Shane....(posted at 1531hrs)....maybe you shouldnt be speeding down Waihi Road. The police didnt make you stop on yellow lines....you chose to...it is a drivers responsibility to stop in a safe area. As it was the case of the driver pulled over today in the unfortunate incident on Maunganui Road....STOP bashing the police for doing their job.

Get a life

Posted on 06-07-2011 18:43 | By Tayboy

Thousands of cars are stopped every week by the Police without incident. Sadly someone crashes into the back of a large fluorescent car with flashing halogen lights and it is again the cop's fault. The Police park their car off to the right of the car they stop to protect them and the person they are speaking to. They can't decide where some winner like Shane (who was only doing 5 km over so thats ok) decides to pull his car over. It is terrible for the poor old fella on the bike and his family, but spare a thought for the poor cop who had to go home to his family after this day.

common sense

Posted on 07-07-2011 03:42 | By onthelevel

I know its hard to come by these days but having looked again at the video and photos it is clear that the ute is stopped clear of the lane although it could of moved further to the left but the police car is nearly half its width into the lane and should and could of moved much more to the left. The officer could of approached the ute from the passanger side thus minimising, isolating and eliminating the potential danger. To rely upon flashing lights and hivis jackets is not enough. Under the health and safety act the officer must ensure his actions do not cause harm to himself or to others. Road workers must place cones on the road for approximatly 150 meters leading up to where they are working even if they are not actually working on the road but on the side or verge.The circumstances of the scooter following a van prior to the crash brings another dimension to the equation and shows that anything is possible, the age and reaction time of the rider and the diabolical choice of transport he was using are also factors. With such small wheels they are inherantly dangerous and don't change direction as a normal motor-cycle does and as I said earlier 50cc scooters are just accidents waiting to happen. I think the officer could of done more to prevent this from happening and is himself very lucky not to of been a statistic as well, not to mention the ute driver had he of gotten out of his vehicle because he had been put into this dangerous situation by possibly his own actions in the first place but potentialy by the officers actions. Police are human and at times they do make mistakes.

Posted on 07-07-2011 08:38 | By Roddo

very sad for the family of the scooter rider none the less, just a shame the cop didnt have the foresight to instruct the ute driver to park on the grass as well as himself as it is these people who instruct road safety, you can clearly see the mufti cars parked on the grass, so it makes sense, also giving the location of the incident,as for scooters or cyclists keeping to the left,hello, first rule of the road!!!, if you think about it, who really was in the wrong here, scooter guy, I dont think so,

Police do it all the time

Posted on 07-07-2011 08:46 | By ROCKY

No matter what the pros and cons of this accident were the Police pull motorists over regularly in dangerous spots without any thought for others using the road.This practice should be prohibited except in very special circumstances.In this case had common sense prevailed an accident would not have occurred.

speculation

Posted on 07-07-2011 09:29 | By bopboy

once again as with many of the comments here, those making them are misinformed and based on a lack of facts. how many of you know how long the patrol car had been stopped before it was re-ended??did the officer have time to instruct the ute driver to mover further down the road?? some people panic when police instruct them to stop and they stop in crazy places. the police can not be held to blame for this, apparently these drivers have all sat and past a licence outlining the rules of the road. tayboy is absoulutely right as to why the officers patrol vehicle is park the way it is. officers are trained to do this with there vehcile. consider the consequences had it not been....if the officer and ute driver had been out of their vehicles then it could have been a triple fatality. this is a tradgedy for all involved, but do not lose sight of who is to blame here. i suggest the likes of onthelevel, rod and rocky curb their comments, least they know all the facts.

clarify,no choose

Posted on 07-07-2011 09:52 | By The author of this comment has been removed.

Whem the police were doing their revenue gathering on Waihi rd . It was more like a boose bus line up ,the last officer was on foot stood on the road and firmly pointed at you to pull over and park on the yellow lines , Youre right I should have ignored him ,done the safe thing and just driven on . They did have a safer area back ,a 2 car parking bay , but as they where pulling over ever second car they about many cars 90% of them where dangerously parked . If people are dieing dont tell me they cant do it smarter.

Srtop the practice it is dangereous

Posted on 07-07-2011 09:59 | By Hebegeebies

Bopboy ; Unfortunately police do this regularly and it would simply be a question of directing the person pulled over to move to a safer place but I have never seen that happen.As you say it was lucky the cop and the driver were not standing on the road.Usually from my observation they are standing all over the place and why on earth they don't stand on the kerb God only knows.

bopboy

Posted on 07-07-2011 10:06 | By Roddo

and this coming from an expert in????? not common sense by any means! it doesnt take rocket science to work this out, it is why the camera was invented so people like you can ponder over it for months, me, I just feel sad for the scooter guy, he is the one who lost out here,

Who is in control?

Posted on 07-07-2011 10:53 | By tibs

The person controlling the stop in this instance is the Police Officer. If you look at the possibilities here, the "offending" motorist would have driven north on Maunganui Rd or turned left into Hull Rd. Maunganui Rd after the Hull Rd intersection would have offered a more open piece of road to pull the the driver over. As would have Hull Rd. My condolences to the family of the deceased and also sympathy to the Police Officer and family, life won't be pleasant for either party. I note that this morning's paper quotes a Police spokesman as saying they're able to stop people on yellow lines if necessary. It's rather like their use of handheld mobiles, in the line of duty. Some restraint on their part would set a better example to other road users. Perhaps a moments consideration of the road layout could have allowed this "stop" to be a normal one and not escalate to a life and death situation. I witnessed a ridiculous u-turn by an officer in an attempt to chase someone south of Te Puke on Sunday last and it looked as if once the chase was on, all consideration for the traffic on the road ceased. He was 10 metres from a gateway but turned anyway and then couldn't reverse to the centre line to complete the u-turn with being in risk of being hits by the cars on the road. The entrance to Affco was only a little further up the road and he could have turned 180 degrees there and lost less time than in trying to do a five point turn. It really did look as though when the lights went on, the thought process altered.

hey bopboy

Posted on 07-07-2011 12:12 | By onthelevel

speculation on your part buster, curb your comments and had the officer got behind his kerb all would be honky dory. Tibs is right, follow the ute untill safe, as I said common sense. hey we need cops but sensible ones please. I bet he doesn't stop there again. expensive lesson learned and lets hope the I.P.C.A makes some recomendations. MININISE,ISOLATE,ELIMINATE ALL HAZARDS ! bopboy why do you think the yellow line was there ?