Australian police decide who is responsible for Mike Hall's death.

[Joan]

It won't shock you, you (on average) have a low opinion of Australians. It does shock me - I know just enough to believe you are wrong.

But I can't justify this. I just hope the coroner does not agree (yeah, s/he will). Before clicking the link, who do you think the police have decided who is responsible? Hint, it's not the driver who killed him.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/ ... hen-killed

[ransos]

From cycle.org.au

Mike Hall’s clothing was not retained or admitted into evidence to be examined, and yet it was alleged that his clothing was not visible and had no reflective properties.
The Inquest was advised that Mike Hall’s rear bag was returned to the family. This remains a source of contention. The bag was not admitted into evidence, and therefore the presence of reflective strips that Mike’s former partner asserts Mike had added to the back of his bag now cannot be established.
The AFP tested the car’s remaining front light and found the light to be below the required brightness to pass a roadworthy test in both NSW and the ACT. The officer who tested the light stated that he did not know what the legally required brightness was.
Monash University Accident Research Centre was specifically asked to investigate if Mike Hall’s rear light was sufficiently bright to meet the standard of the road rules. Other aspects including driver distraction were examined in the report even though this was not specifically requested.
Senior Constable Potts of the AFP created a video using a reconstruction of Mike Hall’s bike to examine how visible Mike Hall would have been. This reconstruction placed the bike off the road to the left, substituted the Dynamo hub with a 6-volt battery, excluded the rear bag and its reflective strip, excluded any person or clothing, excluded any front white light shining on the road, and excluded any human movement of the bike. There was also a Police light stationed near the bike and an oncoming car in the simulation that was admitted into evidence by the AFP. In the submitted video, the reconstructed bike was difficult to see.
A documentary that had extensive video footage of Mike Hall’s rear light and clothing and reflective strip on this rear bag was not viewed by the AFP until two weeks prior to the Coronial Inquest. This video evidence was only introduced to the Coroner’s Court as evidence on Day 1 of the Inquest, and this was only done at the request of the lawyer representing Anna Haslock.
The driver was interviewed by AFP officers at least three times. In the first interview the driver stated that he left his home at 5:30 am. In subsequent interviews he stated that he left home at 5 am. The statement admitted into evidence by Senior Constable Potts of the AFP only included the earlier time. The AFP officers interviewing the driver did not question the inconsistency of the driver’s statements. It was asserted by Counsel Assisting that the driver was driving within the speed limit.

[Rocky]

There’s something that’s not quite right here. I feel so sorry for Mike Hall’s family and partner. Justice doesn’t seem to have been done.

[Rutabaga]

The driver admitted that he looked away just before the collision, and had not put hs lights on full beam. But the focus seems to be on the rider's lights and clothes. Infuriating, so far.

[Joan]

Day 3
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/ ... e-evidence
Note: P-plate is probationary licence; been driving for less than 2 years.

A P-plate driver who fatally hit British ultra-endurance cyclist Mike Hall will not be forced to give evidence to the coronial inquest into his death.

Shegu Bobb was 19 when he hit Hall on the Monaro Highway, south of Canberra, in darkness at 6.22am on 31 March last year.

Hall, who was running second in the Indian Pacific Wheel Race – a 5,500km event from Fremantle to Sydney – died at the scene.

Ken Archer, counsel assisting, told the court on Wednesday that Bobb had proven to be a “highly suggestible” witness in interviews with police.

Mike Hall inquest: two other drivers almost hit ultra-endurance cyclist, court hears
He said he should be not be compelled to give evidence.

“Mr Bobb has consistently said he simply did not see Mr Hall,” Archer said.

The coroner, Bernadette Boss, said English was a second language for Bobb, who was born in Sierra Leone and moved to Australia in 2005.

She said he was a very vulnerable person who would add little to the evidence already heard during the first two-and-a-half days of the inquest.

“The quality of his evidence would be very poor,” Boss said.

Craig Lynch, representing Hall’s partner Anna Haslock, did not object.

Archer said Hall’s mother also didn’t push for Bobb to be put on the witness stand.

British ultra-endurance cyclist killed almost instantly, inquest told
Earlier on Wednesday, witnesses told the court they had seen Bobb after the incident with his phone in his lap with triple-zero on the line but unable to speak due to shock.

Witnesses have given conflicting accounts of Hall’s visibility on the morning he was killed.

A video was shown of Hall riding less than 12 hours before his death, with both front and rear lights working. But a truck driver, Matthew Smith, said he saw Hall “wandering” on the road, forcing Smith to drive on the wrong side to avoid him.

“The morning I saw him he wasn’t lit up like that [on the video],” Smith said.

Snr Const Craig Slater, who is stationed at the nearby town of Michelago, passed Hall travelling in the opposite direction and said he was hard to see.

Asked why he didn’t stop to tell Hall he was at risk, Slater said: “It’s a question I ask myself to this day.”

Hall’s death sent shockwaves through the cycling community, with the respected rider considered one of the best ultra-endurance competitors in the world.

[Joan]

But a truck driver, Matthew Smith, said he saw Hall “wandering” on the road, forcing Smith to drive on the wrong side to avoid him.

This is the same highway, so almost certainly the same road layout, and conveniently there's a truck ute* in shot.

How could he imagine passing without going onto the wrong side of the road? I wonder if "wandering" may have just been strong primary?

(though he must have been exhausted, so it's possible he wasn't holding his line)

*edit: that's not a truck, it's a ute. A truck would be bigger than that. Which makes my point more strongly.

[Rutabaga]

Apparently Mike Hall's mother has demonstrated an extraordinary level of open-heartedness and forgiveness at the inquest. I have only seen second-hand reports of this so far, but what she is reported to have said is quite humbling.

[Joan]

[Rocky]

That is one special woman.

[LowlifeDes]

She certainly is very special. I cannot help thinking though that the net outcome is to further normalise drivers killing vulnerable road users blame free.