The Star: April 15, 2021

• By Kurt Bayer
A SPEEDING motor-cyclist
might narrowly have avoided
death if he’d been doing the
speed limit on a ride to Akaroa, a
coroner has concluded.
Kyle John McKitterick, 48, had
gone on a birthday ride with a
mate on Dyers Pass Rd in Governors
Bay, Canterbury on November
10, 2018, when he collided
with a turning van and died.
Police conducted inquiries into
his death before passing the file
on to Coroner Marcus Elliott.
In the coroner’s findings,
released today, a full narrative
of events leading up to McKitterick’s
death is revealed for the
first time.
The experienced rider had set
out with a friend, Tracy Durham
from Christchurch that morning
for a ride to Akaroa.
On the way back in the afternoon,
with a third, unknown
motor-cyclist riding behind
them, they were travelling
through the Governors Bay
township when tragedy struck.
As they travelled north
through a 60km/h zone, McKitterick,
on a Benelli Tornado 1130
motorcycle, accelerated.
As they went up the hill, there
was a southbound Toyota Hiace
van ahead of them, turning right
into a driveway.
McKitterick’s friend Durham
rode past the van and then it
started to turn into the driveway.
The van driver, Duncan Harvest,
later told police he “believed it
was safe to turn into the driveway”.
“As I was turning, I didn’t
think the bikes could have hit me
as I was looking up the drive,”
Harvest said.
“I don’t remember the crash
very well. I remember the car
spun slightly with what I thought
must have been the motorcyclist.”
When asked by police why he
believed it was safe to turn into
the driveway, Harvest replied:
“I thought there was enough
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Speed a factor in fatal ride – coroner rules
of a gap, because I was already
moving at a slow speed, so therefore
you have a bit of a run-up
anyway and I thought there was
enough space.”
Paramedics rushed to the
scene and took McKitterick to
hospital, where he died in the
emergency department.
Canterbury Police Senior Constable
John Isitt serious crash
unit found McKitterick was
initially travelling at a minimum
speed of between 89–95km/h
and had been between 42m and
61.5m away from the point of
impact when Harvest started
moving across his path.
“If Mr McKitterick was riding
FATAL: Kyle John
McKitterick died
during a birthday
ride on November
10, 2018.
PHOTO:
SUPPLIED
at 60km/h, and he braked at the
same location, then he would
have been able to stop in 16.87m,
well short of the impact area,”
Isitt found.
Police did not lay any charges
against Harvest in relation to the
collision.
Durham, however, carried out
some tests of his own at the scene
and questioned why Harvest
turned in front of the oncoming
motor-cycles.
Durham also highlighted the
road code, which states that if
turning right on an open road,
you must pull over to the left,
then do a right-angle turn once
there is no oncoming traffic.
Thursday April 15 2021 The Star
NEWS 25
But the police pointed out
there was insufficient room at the
location for a driver to pull over
completely to the left prior to
turning right into the driveway.
The coroner highlighted Isitt’s
calculations that, if McKitterick
had been travelling within the
speed limit, he would have been
able to stop well before the point
of collision.
“This means that, even though
Mr Harvest’s action of crossing
the road created the danger of a
collision, the danger was exacerbated
and a crash resulted due to
the speed at which Mr McKitterick
was travelling,” Elliott said.
“If he had been travelling within
the speed limit, he would have
been able to avoid this danger.”
Given the road code’s advice
around speed limits, the coroner
did not find it necessary to make
any recommendations.
But to try to reduce the
chances of deaths in similar
circumstances, he commented:
“This crash illustrates that, as
the road code states, ‘turning
can be dangerous, because it
usually means you have to cross
the path of other vehicles.’ It also
illustrates the danger associated
with driving in excess of the
speed limit.”
The coroner offered his
condolences to McKitterick’s
family.
– NZ Herald
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