Two a penny

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Two people have died on New Zealand roads this weekend.

This morning a 78-year-old Hauraki man died at the scene of a crash close to Paeroa.

The driver of the ute was the only other person involved and was unhurt.

Police said the man attempted to do a U-turn in the path of a northbound ute close to the intersection of Rangiora Road, Komata, on State Highway 26.

The dead man was driving west and hit an oncoming car, Sergeant Steve Salton said.

About 1am yesterday (Saturday) a 22-year-old man died at the scene of a two-car collision on Auckland’s Upper Harbour motorway, close to the Greenhithe Bridge.

On Friday morning two teenage girls were killed in a car crash in Whangarei.

He suspected speed to be a factor in the crash.10am.

The pair, who were aged 17 and 18, were killed when the car they were in rolled down a bank on Anzac Rd and into the front yard of a property in suburban Morningside just after 1.

The two were in the back seat of the car and not wearing seatbelts, Northland police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett said.

Police said they were locals.

They received minor injuries and did not need hospital treatment.

There were three other women, aged 16 to 19, in the car.

Ms Kennett said the car lost control on a bend and no other vehicles were involved.

The driver was breath-tested at the scene and was found not to have been under the influence of alcohol.

Also on Friday, a woman died after her car and a truck collided close to Dargaville, 58km south west of Whangarei.

She said the road would have been wet as it rained in Whangarei yesterday and overnight.

The woman driver of the car died at the scene. . The three deaths on the road on Friday fell outside of the weekend reporting period.

* The weekend road death toll was earlier incorrectly reported as five.

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Immigration ‘has to be fixed’

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Fellow bikies performed a haka chant as the coffin of Rebels motorcycle club life member Richard Roberts was lifted from a motorcycle sidecar at a crematorium in Canberra.

About 300 bikies attended Roberts’ funeral on Monday, remembering the man they called ”Rebel Rick” as a ”superstar” of drinking who ”loved the chicks and they loved him”.

”He was feared by those who didn’t know him, but loved by those who did,” a fellow bikie, known as Pappa, said of Roberts in a eulogy.

The 57-year-old New Zealand-born father of three was fatally shot last Tuesday at a suburban Canberra home.

”He was a hard worker.

Another Rebel said the slain man had ”loved his club and loved to ride”.

Roberts was a New Zealander who shifted to Australia in 1973.”

Roberts was also remembered as a man with a ”heart of gold” who ”could make you laugh”.

Engelbert Humperdinck’s cover version of Frank Sinatra’s My Way, with the poignant lyrics ”Regrets? I’ve a had few”, was played after the eulogies. .

Earlier, a procession of more than 300 bikies and an empty hearse moved through the northern suburbs of Canberra from a Rebels clubhouse in Queanbeyan to the Norwood Park Crematorium under police escort.

Bikies from Rebels chapters as far away as southeastern Victoria, the NSW central coast, Gundagai and Sydney attended the funeral.

A police car stood by as the bikies, most of them wearing helmets, ran a red light at the entrance to the crematorium.

The coffin containing Roberts’ body was carried on a sidecar. Police have charged 20-year-old Russell Field with their murders.

Roberts and Gregory Carrigan, 48, were shot dead outside a southern Canberra house last week.

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A spokeswoman for ACT police said the funeral and the procession through Canberra on Monday morning were incident-free.

The slayings were initially thought to be an explosion of violence between outlaw bikie gangs, but a long-time Rebels member has said they resulted from a bitter ”love triangle”.

The proposed laws would allow police to apply to the Supreme Court for an order to prohibit members identified in an outlaw motorcycle gang from associating with each other.

The funeral was held as the NSW government is considering introducing tough new laws aimed at stamping out violent bikie gangs.

The night before Monday’s funeral, a Hells Angel member, believed to be Peter Zervas, 32, was gunned down outside his Sydney home.

One bikie at the funeral wore a provocative t-shirt which read, ”Love us or hate us, you’d better get used to us”.

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The man, who survived the shooting, is the brother of Anthony Zervas, 29, who last week was bludgeoned to death at Sydney airport during a brawl between members of the Hells Angels and the rival bikie gang Comancheros

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Teacher undergoing surgery after bus crash

and Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Eight pupils from a Gisborne high school were discharged from hospital in Hastings today after a bus crash on the Napier-Wairoa road.
The group's teacher, who was driving their mini bus back to Gisborne, was undergoing surgery as pupils waited for their parents to arrive from Gisborne to collect them.
The Lytton High School group was travelling on State Highway 2 near Putorino about 6.
Police said it appeared a car came around a corner towards the northbound mini bus and may have crossed the centre line.30pm when the crash happened.
The car driver received facial injuries and broken bones.
The pupils suffered moderate injuries ranging from broken bones to bruising.
The Lowe Walker rescue helicopter tried to land at the crash scene, but had to turn back because of bad weather.
Both vehicles were extensively damaged. .

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Police said they were continuing their investigation into the accident and hoped to speak to both drivers today

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Police clean up boy racers in Hamilton?

– Saturday, 21 February 2009

Thousands of tickets have been issued and hundreds of cars have been impounded as Hamilton police's Brat Pack rained on the boy racers' parade along Te Rapa Straight.
Figures obtained by the show in the 12 months to June 2008, police performed 9837 compulsory and mobile breath tests and took 97 positive readings; 3359 infringement and traffic notices were issued; 166 people were arrested for various offences; 143 vehicles were seized; and 362 vehicles were either green or pink stickered.
At the time, police labelled the work "very productive".
"Te Rapa Rd used to be a bloody nightmare because they used Scotsman Grandstands along the service lane which has since been shut down.
Waikato road policing manager Inspector Leo Tooman said the five-officer-strong Brat Pack had made significant progress with the boy racer problem in Hamilton. Now it's really as soon as we see them starting to congregate you go and move them on. Then the liquor ban came in. .
When contacted, owner Jeff Olsen said not a lot had changed.
Washworld has been a popular congregating site for boy racers over the years, with varying amounts of broken bottles, spew and urine left decorating the premises."
Mr Olsen said there were occasional nights where it was worse than normal, but there were "very occasional" nights when nothing happened at all.
"It (happens) fairly regularly; lots of broken bottles, even though there's a liquor ban.
He was disappointed there had not been as much presence of police in Te Rapa as had been promised.
He said his staff would spend, on average, an hour cleaning up the mess left behind by boy racers.
"There's a liquor ban but it doesn't seem to have any affect.
"There's a liquor ban but it doesn't seem to have any affect."
He had noticed several congregation areas including Bunnings, Westpac and Fairview Motors and Shell Pukete car parks. If it was enforced and there was enough of a police presence then we wouldn't be picking all the RTD bottles and other junk up. It flares up and police do a bit of extra activity, something like the liquor ban; it hasn't solved the issue, it still carries on.
"It's gone on for a lot of years and a lot of talk on what's going to happen."
Shell Pukete manager Pierre Erasmus said staff spent every Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning picking up rubbish, broken bottles and McDonald's wrappers along with cleaning urine and graffiti off parts of the building. It's just something that we pretty much deal with."
Waikato police spokesperson Andrew McAlley said for a city the size of Hamilton police would never be able to remove all boy racers, but confirmed police were pleased there were no longer congregations of up to 2000 at a time as was the case about two years ago.
"If they weren't so messy it wouldn't be a problem.

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Police clean up boy racers in Hamilton?

– Saturday, 21 February 2009

Thousands of tickets have been issued and hundreds of cars have been impounded as Hamilton police's Brat Pack rained on the boy racers' parade along Te Rapa Straight.
Figures obtained by the show in the 12 months to June 2008, police performed 9837 compulsory and mobile breath tests and took 97 positive readings; 3359 infringement and traffic notices were issued; 166 people were arrested for various offences; 143 vehicles were seized; and 362 vehicles were either green or pink stickered.
At the time, police labelled the work "very productive".
"Te Rapa Rd used to be a bloody nightmare because they used Scotsman Grandstands along the service lane which has since been shut down.
Waikato road policing manager Inspector Leo Tooman said the five-officer-strong Brat Pack had made significant progress with the boy racer problem in Hamilton. Now it's really as soon as we see them starting to congregate you go and move them on. Then the liquor ban came in. .
When contacted, owner Jeff Olsen said not a lot had changed.
Washworld has been a popular congregating site for boy racers over the years, with varying amounts of broken bottles, spew and urine left decorating the premises."
Mr Olsen said there were occasional nights where it was worse than normal, but there were "very occasional" nights when nothing happened at all.
"It (happens) fairly regularly; lots of broken bottles, even though there's a liquor ban.
He was disappointed there had not been as much presence of police in Te Rapa as had been promised.
He said his staff would spend, on average, an hour cleaning up the mess left behind by boy racers.
"There's a liquor ban but it doesn't seem to have any affect.
"There's a liquor ban but it doesn't seem to have any affect."
He had noticed several congregation areas including Bunnings, Westpac and Fairview Motors and Shell Pukete car parks. If it was enforced and there was enough of a police presence then we wouldn't be picking all the RTD bottles and other junk up. It flares up and police do a bit of extra activity, something like the liquor ban; it hasn't solved the issue, it still carries on.
"It's gone on for a lot of years and a lot of talk on what's going to happen."
Shell Pukete manager Pierre Erasmus said staff spent every Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning picking up rubbish, broken bottles and McDonald's wrappers along with cleaning urine and graffiti off parts of the building. It's just something that we pretty much deal with."
Waikato police spokesperson Andrew McAlley said for a city the size of Hamilton police would never be able to remove all boy racers, but confirmed police were pleased there were no longer congregations of up to 2000 at a time as was the case about two years ago.
"If they weren't so messy it wouldn't be a problem.

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Prison report slated as officers suspended

– Monday, 08 September 2008

A report into allegations of corruption at Christchurch Men's Prison has been branded a whitewash after the revelation that three officers are under investigation for serious misconduct.
last week reported that an officer at the prison was on 48 hours special leave while allegations against the officer were investigated.
The investigations come less than two weeks after Corrections issued a report into the troubled Christchurch prison dismissing all but one of the 25 allegations of corruption and misconduct levelled by "Corrections Officer 1".
The officer has since been suspended and the Corrections Department has now revealed that a further two officers at the prison have been suspended and are under investigation.
He said the report had found managers were not negligent and that all was well in Bravo Unit at the prison.
Nigel Herring, the former Corrections Association local chairman, who supported the officer's allegations, said the latest suspensions showed the report was a whitewash. The report is very much a whitewash of the events and the outcome and recommendations are next to nil.
"They've deliberately avoided all the managerial issues I raised and asked them to look at.
"The department remains confident that corruption is not widespread at Christchurch Men's Prison," he said."
Corrections southern assistant regional manager Ian Bourke said he stood by the report's conclusion.
"It is possible that the officer may be cleared of any wrongdoing.
There was always "a small number of staff who let themselves and their colleagues down", Bourke said."
Bourke would not detail the allegations, but serious misconduct included a wide range of offences other than corruption including theft, violence, dishonesty, sexual harassment and inappropriate use of the department's computer system. When these types of allegations are made, immediate steps, often including suspension, are taken while the matter is fully investigated.
It said the "partaking of biscuits" by an officer with a prisoner was the only other instance of inappropriate conduct identified.
Last month's report ordered further inquiries be carried out over one alleged case of corruption for which "there is sufficient information to warrant continued inquiry".
In the report, Monk states sharing food "is an important component of staff actively building rapport and maintaining ongoing communications with prisoners".
The southern region manager, Paul Monk, defended the practice of sharing food with prisoners.

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"We would encourage staff to identify opportunities for communicating with prisoners in less formal settings and eating their respective food together is one of those opportunities," Monk said