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Teenager knocked off bike in hit-and-run at ‘unsafe’ bridge

Fran Chin frances.chin@stuff.co.nz

A father is questioning the safety of a Nelson one-lane bridge after his daughter was knocked off her bicycle in a hit-and-run.

Chris got a call from his daughter, Madie, that he’d never hoped to receive.

‘‘Dad, can you come and get me? I’ve been hit by a car,’’ she said.

The 15-year-old student was cycling down Maitai Valley Rd towards Nelson on her way to rowing training at 5.40am on September 12 when she saw car headlights approach her from behind.

Madie was wearing hi-vis and had lights on the front and back of her bicycle.

The student had just crossed Gibbs Bridge when she was ‘‘violently’’ hit by the car from behind, causing her to fall on to the road.

‘‘It felt like something massive had hit me,’’ she said.

As Madie lay on the ground, the car drove off without stopping, despite losing its wing mirror in the crash.

Madie received scrapes and cuts to her face, hands, elbow and hip from the fall, and needed to be ‘‘patched up’’ after the incident.‘\

She is currently on the mend, managing to attend all of her mock exams.

A police spokesperson said police had seized a car matching the description given by Madie, but inquiries into the incident were ongoing.

‘‘It is unacceptable for a driver to leave someone injured on the side of the road, and the victim and her family would like answers,’’ Constable Jemma Radcliffe said on the Police Ten 7 programme on Thursday night.

Chris said Gibbs Bridge was unsafe.

He did not believe that the onelane bridge would be able to handle increased traffic caused by a controversial housing development, which has plans for 350 homes to be built

in the nearby Ka¯ka¯ Valley area.

Chris said he did not agree with a report in January that looked at the impacts of traffic flow from the proposed development, which said that while the development would increase the bridge’s use, the extra

traffic would not be a safety issue.

He cited his daughter’s accident as evidence of the one-lane bridge’s danger. He hoped that a serious accident would not happen as a result of the increased traffic.

‘‘Gibbs Bridge is not safe now,

and will be even less safe with increased traffic flow.’’

While he was not fundamentally opposed to the development, Chris said he did not believe that the developers had given enough detail to the council and the community.

‘‘I’m quite happy for development to go ahead, given that things are done properly. The main concern is the road infrastructure is woefully inadequate.’’

One of the Maitahi-Bayview developers, Andrew Spittal, said that according to the latest advice given to them, Gibbs Bridge did not need widening and could cope with the increased traffic from the proposed Maitahi Village.

However, the developers were ‘‘proactively’’ looking at ways to provide transport into the city that separated cyclists and pedestrians from cars.

‘‘Our preferred option is to construct two new bridges for pedestrians and cyclists only, one at Gibbs and one at Jickells (Bridge), to separate cyclists and pedestrians from existing traffic.’’

Spittal said their vision for the Ka¯ka¯ Valley development incorporated ways to reduce traffic movements. By ‘‘designing for the future’’, they planned for a community that relied on less use of cars, not more.

‘‘We want to leave the environment better than we find it, and that includes our approach to traffic management.’’

Spittal said he wanted to express his concerns to Chris and Madie, and agreed that safety on bridges for cyclists and pedestrians was an issue.

‘‘I can completely understand Chris’ concerns as a parent.’’

Police would like to hear from anyone who has any information regarding a red Mazda with a missing wing mirror on September 12.

‘‘Gibbs Bridge is not safe now, and will be even less safe with increased traffic flow.’’ Chris, accident victim’s father

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2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281517934267957

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