40 WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR. YEAH RIGHT!
High-flying cop lands with red face
28 October 2005
By MERVYN DYKES
A Wanganui police officer joined the “flying squad” for a brief moment near Marton yesterday, when his car flew off the road and crashed into a stream.
The officer, whose name was not revealed by police, was acting as a “sweeper”, clearing the way for contestants in a stage of the Dunlop Targa road race.
Onlookers rushed to his aid and when he emerged apparently unhurt, broke into cheers and applause.
They had gathered at the Y-shaped intersection of Makuhou, Galpins and Tutaenui roads, 8km north of Marton, to watch the road racers negotiate the tight bend.
“The driver is fine,” said the police area commander in Wanganui, Inspector Sam Hoyle.
“He was taken to hospital purely as a precaution, but was back in the office in a couple of hours. He’s now at home, resting, at the start of rostered days off.”
Mr Hoyle said a special crash unit had investigated the incident, under the direction of Wanganui Senior Sergeant Duncan McLeod, and a report was being prepared.
Senior Constable Peter Bridge, from the central districts serious crash unit, said the patrol car’s airbag had inflated when it hit a roadside fence, but had deflated by the time the car landed in the shallow stream. The driver hurt his head and arm in the second impact. Soon after the crash, one of the road racers - the Honda Civic of Tom Ryan and Brent Robb - missed the bend as well and became entangled in the wires of a fence a few metres from the police car.
Neither was hurt and the car was pulled back on to the road and continued on its way.
Even though all the evidence pointed to reckless driving the suspect was never charged.
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Woman stranded for two days after crash charged
10.45am Wednesday October 18, 2006
The woman who spent two nights down a steep bank with her elderly mother after their car plunged off a cliff in south Westland has been charged with careless use of a motor vehicle.
Marion Hounsome will appear in the Whataroa District Court in December.
Her 71-year-old mother suffered a cracked knee and black eye after their car missed a tight bend on the Cook Saddle three weeks ago.
The women were found two days later when a tourist who stopped to take a photo, heard their cries for help.
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Police defend driving charge for woman stuck in car wreck
Thursday October 19, 2006
By Jarrod Booker
Police are defending their decision to prosecute a multiple sclerosis sufferer who endured a two-day ordeal trapped in West Coast bush with her elderly mother after a vehicle crash.
Singing teacher Marion Hounsome, 40, has been charged with careless use of a motor vehicle after her van plunged down a steep bank when she failed to take a sharp bend in a remote area near Fox Glacier this month.
She and her mother, Glenys Hounsome, 71, were stranded for two days before Australian tourists who stopped nearby to take photographs of the scenery heard their cries.
Glenys Hounsome required surgery for an injured knee. Marion Hounsome’s medical condition means she walks with a cane and needs a wheelchair to travel longer distances.
“I’m not happy about [being charged], but that’s life,” Marion Hounsome told the Herald.
“They obviously think I deserve it. It’s just how it goes.”
Inspector Hugh Flower said police had taken into account the ordeal Ms Hounsome went through.
“But the bottom line is that she shouldn’t have driven off the road. It was below the prudent standard required of drivers.
“We have sympathy for the ordeal they went through, and that is something the court can take into account in mitigation of penalty. It’s not as if it will be dismissed altogether.
“We have to consider the public interest and whether members of the public in a similar situation have been prosecuted.”
After the crash, Marion Hounsome said: “I really thought I was doing everything right, but obviously I didn’t. And we just went over the edge and the car turned over, I don’t know how many times, and just landed on its roof.”
Glenys Hounsome, who had been visiting her daughter from England and plans to return next month said the crash had been an ordeal for the pair “and in Marion’s case especially”.
She was standing by her daughter who “did her best” in the situation.
“No one could say accurately exactly what happened in those few seconds [of the crash].”
Glenys Hounsome is still in a wheelchair after injuring her knee as she cannot put weight on her left leg.
“I think a piece of the knee was knocked off and had to be wired back into place. It’s not painful, it’s just an inconvenience.”
Marion Hounsome is listed to appear in the Whataroa District Court on December 7 to face the charge. She faces a fine of up to $3000 and disqualification of her driver’s licence.
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Charges Dropped After Franz Josef Crash
04/12/2006
Police have dropped a charge of careless driving against the driver of a car which crashed down a bank south of Franz Josef in October, leaving two women trapped for two days.
Marion Hounsome, 40, from Christchurch, was driving her mother Glenys Hounsome, 71, toward Haast on October 1 when their car left the road.
It rolled over and over and landed on its roof down a steep bank.
While the women were not trapped in the vehicle, the dense bush made it impossible to get anywhere.
Ms Hounsome, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and normally uses a wheelchair, said she could see the road and shouted for help, but nobody came for two days.
Police and rescue agencies were alerted by a tourist who had spotted the car after stopping to take photographs of the local scenery.
Police said Ms Hounsome would face a charge of careless driving, but Ms Hounsome said on Monday she was told last week that no further action would be taken.
“The charges have been dropped - they just said they felt I had been through enough, and there was nothing to be gained by pursuing it any further,” she told NZPA.
(Not because they looked like petty persecutors?)
“It’s a bit of a relief.”
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Police ducked for cover over Israeli
Saturday December 2, 2006
By David Eames
Police all but ignored a warrant to arrest a visiting former Israeli general a judge had ruled could be charged with war crimes, court papers show.
Instead, officers waited for their own legal advice, which saw the orders cancelled.
District court judge Avinash Deobhakta on Monday issued two arrest warrants for former Israeli Defence Force chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon after deciding the 55-year-old had a prima facie case to answer, under the Geneva Convention, for his part in the assassination of Hamas leader Salah Shehadeb in Gaza in 2002. A one-tonne bomb was dropped on Shehadeb’s house, killing 22 others.
The court papers said General Ya’alon later admitted his part in planning the assassination and was, therefore, a party to the bombing.
Electronic copies of the warrants were forwarded by lawyer Davey Salmon to Detective Inspector Bruce Good, in Auckland, at 1.07pm that day.
But the court papers show that almost 24 hours after the warrant was issued, nothing had happened, although police knew exactly where the general was and were possibly even keeping him under surveillance.
The court papers show Mr Good at one stage told Mr Salmon police needed hard copies of the warrants before executing them, but then refused an offer to have the papers delivered to him, saying he would prefer to pick them up at an “appropriate stage”.
Mr Salmon later received a call from Assistant Commissioner Peter Marshall, who said police would not be executing the warrants until told to by the Solicitor-General.
Mr Marshall’s call came about two hours before Attorney-General Michael Cullen’s office had even seen evidence in support of the warrants, and six hours before Dr Cullen officially quashed them.
Mr Good yesterday confirmed to the Weekend Herald he had sought legal advice on whether the warrants could legally be enforced. The unusual nature of the warrants meant the matter was passed to Crown Law and then the Attorney-General’s office.
Agents for the Attorney-General asked to see the evidence against General Ya’alon. It was flown to Wellington and hand-delivered at 1.10pm on Tuesday.
At 3pm, counsel for the Attorney-General indicated a stay of prosecution was imminent, despite assurances by Mr Salmon’s clients that further supporting evidence was being assembled.
The warrants were officially quashed about 5pm. Had they still been active two hours later, when General Ya’alon spoke at a meeting at Kadimah College in central Auckland, he could have ended up in handcuffs. He has since left New Zealand.
A statement from Dr Cullen’s office yesterday said Judge Deobhakta was “unwittingly acting without jurisdiction”.
Dr Cullen later told the Weekend Herald the original arrest warrant ruling was wrong as the process followed by those bringing the charges was “invalid”.
Mr Salmon said his client was “considering further avenues”.
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