news Friday June 20, 07:13 AM
Top cop killed in cycle accident NZPA
"He oversaw all road policing operations and achieved significant and sustained
reductions in road deaths and injury crashes."
Time to complete the bicycle track from Wellington to PetoneSteve Fitzgerald, who became known internationally for his role in running New Zealand's road policing, was killed in a road crash near Wellington last night.
Superintendent Fitzgerald, 57, was cycling from work about 5.25pm when he and an articulated truck and trailer unit crashed on the roundabout of the Hutt Road and The Esplanade on the Petone foreshore.
..His death has stunned the police force, in which he played a variety of leading roles.
Acting Police Commissioner Lyn Provost said his family, friends and police colleagues were shocked and saddened.
"Steve has made an enormous contribution to policing in New Zealand," Ms Provost said.
Mr Fitzgerald was national manager of the Police Communication Centres for the past three years, but was publicly best known for his work as national road policing manager for the five years before that.
"In the eyes of many New Zealanders and our police colleagues internationally, Steve was the face of road policing," Ms Provost said.
"He oversaw all road policing operations and achieved significant and sustained reductions in road deaths and injury crashes."
..He came to New Zealand in 1974 and, in the same year, joined New Zealand Police as a recruit. On graduation, he was posted to the uniform branch in Wanganui where he remained until 1978...
In late 1986 he moved to Lower Hutt Police Station as the station senior sergeant and in 1992 went to Police National Headquarters.
He undertook a range of roles there including management review and strategic policy advice.
..
The accident was the second involving a cyclist in the Hutt Valley yesterday.
A 61-year-old male cyclist died after falling into the path of a truck outside St Patrick's College in Silverstream, Upper Hutt, at 8.40am.
Police said it appeared the driver of a parked vehicle had opened his door, and the cyclist crashed into the door, falling into the path of a truck travelling in the same direction.
Lobby group Cycling Advocates' Network (CAN) chairman Robert Ibell said the two deaths showed that central and local government were not moving fast enough to make roads safer for cycling.
"Neither of these tragic deaths should have happened," Mr Ibell said.
"In the case of the Petone crash, continuing procrastination by Transit and buck-passing by several other authorities in the Wellington region have meant that the Ngauranga to Petone cycle track is still incomplete.
"Local cyclists have been asking for at least 14 years for something to be done on this route."
Mr Ibell said cyclists had no choice but to share the road space with high speed motor vehicles.
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Robert Ibell CAN Chairperson Phone +64-4-972 2552 Email chair@can.org.nz
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On another Bicycle topic: Helmets:
davesbikeblogbmjcycle helmets inevitably damage public health. Even for cyclists on Britain's roads, the health benefits exceed the risks by a factor of 20.7 The health benefits of cycling are so great---and the health injuries from driving so great8---that not cycling is really dangerous. By telling people that they need helmets for an activity that for a century has been regarded as "safe"---and in fact has a fine safety record---you inevitably engender the impression that cycling must have become more dangerous than driving and walking. That deters cycling. That reduces cyclists' presence on the roads. That increases the risk of death
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The introduction of Compulsory bicycle Helmet law into Western Australia had the
greatest Detrimental effect on public health of any legislation in modern history.
- A few injuries may have been avoided, but thousands gave up cycling. I ride, I wear a helmet, to avoid abuse from police, and because Wgtn isnt warm enough to use sweat as an excuse. Also to increase my
visible presence, although research indicates that car drivers move
closer to a helmeted cyclist than to a bare-headed cyclist.
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No Bid Oil contracts given to USA corporations, Ruskies edged out..
“The bigger prize everybody is waiting for is development of the giant new fields,” Leila Benali, an authority on Middle East oil at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, said in a telephone interview from the firm’s Paris office.
...
A total of 46 companies, including the leading oil companies of China, India and Russia, had memorandums of understanding with the Oil Ministry, yet were not awarded contracts.
The no-bid deals are structured as service contracts. The companies will be paid for their work, rather than offered a license to the oil deposits. As such, they do not require the passage of an oil law setting out terms for competitive bidding. The legislation has been stalled by disputes among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties over revenue sharing and other conditions.
The first oil contracts for the majors in Iraq are exceptional for the oil industry.
They include a provision that could allow the companies to reap large profits at today’s prices: the ministry and companies are negotiating payment in oil rather than cash.
...
“These are not actually service contracts,” Ms. Benali said. “They were designed to circumvent the legislative stalemate” and bring Western companies with experience managing large projects into Iraq before the passage of the oil law.
Further to the Kanadahar prison scandal:
'Taliban spokesman' apparently said
"
minibuses waiting outside the prison in which dozens of the militants fled."
USA has bombs/shells that disperse into a bunch of "Hockey Pucks" that cetect IR from vehicles, then disperse further into cluster bombs or EFPs to penetrate thin armour on top surfaces of vehicles. Apparently not around the night of the jail break, or too dangerous to use in a general urban setting. USA has now told Kanadahar people to stay inside (for how long) so expect submunitions soon. Trouble is IR signature can be
a small fire in a can, a wedding party, or anyones minibus. How hard it is to win hearts shreded by fleshettes
I saw a report from a USA tank unit who in GulfWII (
Operation
Iraqi
Liberation) detected a bunch of Iraqi tanks being offloaded from a train. They called in an airstrike which (with one bomb? ) destroyed all the tanks and trucks in the area. Air superiority against any warm thing.
[combining weapons and bicycles: I saw a report where an Isreali tank fired a round at a
Palestinian boy on a bicycle. The boy was killed by fleshettes. It seems that the rounds have very accurately timing, calibrated just beforefiring, from range finder info. The round can then detonate just above the target] [this may be done merely by
height above ground sensors]
The BLU-108/B SFM (Sensor Fused Munition) is a special-purpose aerially dispensed anti-armour munition, which has been in production by Textron Systems since 1992. A BLU-108/B unit carries four independent Skeet anti-tank submunitions. After release from the dispenser, each BLU-108/B descends under a parachute to a pre-set altitude. Then a small rocket sends the BLU-108/B upwards and into a rapid spin, so that the Skeet warheads are released outwards. Each Skeet falls independently, scanning the ground with its IR sensor for the signature of a tank. When a target is detected, the Skeet detonates, firing an EFP (Explosively Formed Penetrator) directly downward, and a ring of fragments outwards (against soft targets in the vicinity). If no target is detected, the Skeet explodes immediately above the ground
usmilav
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As much as one may rage against Empire, the Taliban hardly deserve to run a country. They banned male doctors from touching women, then
halted training of midwives. Way to make women suffer.
This image is not the back of a tram, it is an attempt to make a small icon from a Mayan Glyph (I forget which glyph)
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earthobservatoryForest Change on New Ireland, Papau New Guinea. The Big Island is still 70% forested it seems
bicycle deaths, Steve Fitzgerald, No Bid Oil contracts, Kanadahar prison, New Ireland,
spinning boxes
