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