Rhys Middleton, a 23 year old motorcyclist from Napier was killed on 07 February by 27 year old Jieling Xaio, a visitor from China in New Zealand on a working visa.
By her own admission, not a confident driver, and without any previous experience on the open road, Xaio was seen by witnesses to have been driving erratically prior to the accident, She entered a plea of Guilty to the charge of Dangerous Driving Causing Death in Napier District Court yesterday.. There are no mitigating factors to this case, and a family is now without their son, (Rhys was also engaged to be married early next year). Xaio will be sentenced in June, and her lawyer is hopeful that any penalty will be financial - personally I am of the opinion that the outcome was an inevitability rather than a possibility, and that a custodial sentence should be considered. ACC remind us that riding a motorcycle is 21 times more likely to result in an accident involving injury than driving a car - a fairly daunting statistic. Some motorcyclists are idiots and their injuries the result of a lack of skill, over confidence, or plain stupidity - others, careful and conscientious, suffer from bad luck.... None of this helps when someone who should not have been driving a vehicle on New Zealand roads causes a death. Comments are closed.
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Don MalcolmA perfect day involves being on my Harley with a long ride ahead.
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