Goffe said he was hospitalised for two weeks, suffered damage to his wrist and fractured four fingers on his dominant right hand, which required surgery and forced him off work for 10 weeks. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, I\u2019m left with a permanent injury,\u201d he said. \u201cI won\u2019t be able to use my middle finger for [the rest of] my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goffe, a kaupapa M\u0101ori social activator and activist, said his injuries had impacted everyday activities and meant a loss of income. <\/p>\n
He is facing the prospect of having to give up things he loves such as art, tennis and playing the trumpet, leaving him \u201cupset\u201d and \u201cangry\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 10 weeks out of work, I can\u2019t hold my nephew, I can\u2019t be there for my sisters, I can\u2019t change myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goffe went to Auckland Transport (AT) for help with his predicament and was \u201cstunned by the lack of support and accountability by a Crown agency\u201d. <\/p>\n
Grayson Goffe’s injuries to his hand required surgery. Photo \/ Grayson Goffe<\/p>\n
He said all he received was an email apology and a \u201cgoodwill gesture\u201d of a $20 Hop card, which he labelled \u201cinsulting\u201d and \u201cpathetic\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was asking them just to help me out because 10 weeks is a long time to not have work and I use emails a lot. So I was asking out of need and that\u2019s why it was more hurtful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, what\u2019s wrong with these people? Where are the values of caring for each other, even when you did do something wrong? It\u2019s just kind of corporate-y.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think it\u2019s a p*** poor attitude from AT.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goffe, a regular user and advocate of public transport, said his experience with bus drivers has been worrying as some have the attitude \u201cthey\u2019re the king of the roads\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a small person. If you can\u2019t hear a thud or if you\u2019re unaware that you hit something or you can\u2019t notice a scooter driver, you shouldn\u2019t be driving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grayson Goffe has been off work for 10 weeks because of his injuries. Photo \/ Grayson Goffe<\/p>\n
Goffe said he has filed a police report but has yet to hear back about the case. The Herald has approached police for comment. <\/p>\n
AT group manager public transport operations Rachel Cara said it has been assisting police.<\/p>\n
\u201cAuckland Transport is aware of a reported collision between a bus and a scooter on Queen St on March 20,\u201d Cara said in a statement to the Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis incident has been the subject of police investigations, which means we are not able to comment on specific details, however, we can confirm we have been assisting police.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cara said the $20 Hop card was a \u201cgenuine attempt\u201d to provide something useful.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur customer team engaged with the person involved after they raised this incident with us, and provided them with a Hop card loaded with a small credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a genuine attempt from our team to provide something useful for the customer, and was certainly not intended to downplay or minimise the incident,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team had previously apologised to the person over the incident, stressed that the bus driver\u2019s reported behaviour did not align with AT\u2019s values and wished them a speedy recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand\u2019s accident compensation scheme provides broad cover for New Zealanders when they are injured in accidents or workplace incidents, including crashes and road safety incidents.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of this scheme, compensation for accidents and injuries is managed centrally through ACC rather than people making claims against individual organisations like AT.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Goffe said he was hospitalised for two weeks, suffered damage to his wrist and fractured four fingers on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2327,74,51,26985,13912,30482,3595,10635,334,16718,19191,26858,214138,78,15258,60701,1362,5158,130,2510,111,43,139,69,28243,2833,1523,4481,8145,312,31145,112,75373],"class_list":["post-416669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2327","tag-after","tag-auckland","tag-bones","tag-broken","tag-bus","tag-by","tag-card","tag-compensation","tag-him","tag-hitandrun","tag-hop","tag-hurtful","tag-in","tag-injury","tag-insulting","tag-made","tag-man","tag-more","tag-multiple","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offered","tag-ordeal","tag-over","tag-permanent","tag-run","tag-says","tag-suffered","tag-transport","tag-transports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}