Weston said he had almost become accustomed to terrible drivers but never imagined someone would intentionally run him down.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately I\u2019m used to riding on the road and having incidents with drivers but never would I expect to be deliberately run over and left for dead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could easily have been killed. You never expect that to happen, no matter what you do.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the crash, driver Liam Foster took off and drove for about 2km with Weston’s electric bike trapped under his car. Photo \/ Mark Weston<\/p>\n
Weston was riding in the cycle lane on Centaurus Rd but moved into the middle of the road where it narrowed at a pedestrian island to avoid being clipped by passing cars.<\/p>\n
The court heard the manoeuvre angered Foster who was driving behind and aggressively tooted his horn. Once the road widened, Weston pulled left and gave Foster the finger as he drove past.<\/p>\n
Foster stopped further up the road and verbally abused Weston, who slapped one of the car\u2019s wing mirrors as he rode past, breaking the cover.<\/p>\n
Harvey told the court that infuriated Foster, who pursued Weston as he fled on to the footpath.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour reaction to that was entirely disproportionate. You revved your vehicle loudly enough for him to hear, then you essentially lined him up and ran him over on the grass berm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a dreadful act of violence. I hope you realise that if as a result of what you did on this morning, Mr Weston had been killed, you would almost certainly have been facing a charge of murder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weston broke down in tears reading a victim impact statement in court, detailing serious injuries including his broken back, broken and torn wrists and cuts, grazes and burns on his leg.<\/p>\n
At the hospital emergency department, he was terrified of being paralysed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still remember grabbing my daughter\u2019s hand and saying, \u2018honey, I\u2019m scared\u2019. As a parent to a child, you should never have to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
More than 18 months on, Weston lives in constant pain, cannot work and is recovering from months of severe depression.<\/p>\n
Harvey noted Foster had shown no remorse or empathy for Weston and continued to maintain his innocence, blaming his partner for his crimes, despite being found guilty following a judge-alone trial in August.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been dreadful harm caused to Mr Weston. Not only did he suffer the physical injuries, he has suffered psychologically. It has upset him, it has upset his family and you need to understand very clearly just how much damage you have done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While Weston accepted he should not have knocked Foster\u2019s wing mirror, he said he was fed up with dangerous driving.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you encounter situations like that every time you ride you get frustrated. On that ride I had already done 15km and had two or three cars pass too close or turn in front of me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why cyclists have to take the lane, it\u2019s the only way to stay safe. I don\u2019t want cyclists to keep getting hit and killed. I could have been a statistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foster was also disqualified from driving for two years, although Weston was upset the period would run while he was in jail, arguing the sanction would have no practical effect.<\/p>\n
The court heard Foster could not afford to make a reparation payment to Weston.<\/p>\n
Weston\u2019s electric bike was destroyed in the crash and it was a year before he was ready to get back in the saddle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got onto a bike at home, just to ride on my driveway, which turned into riding down the footpath and then I went \u2018bugger it\u2019 and I rode on the road \u2013 only for a couple of hundred metres because it hurt. I got off, went to the neighbour\u2019s, got a hug and cried,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Weston has since ventured on to a busy road and dreams of one day being fit enough to cycle the 85km Old Ghost Rd on the South Island\u2019s West Coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was terrifying having people drive up behind me, but I did it. I\u2019m not going to let it hold me back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Weston urged drivers to watch out for cyclists and observe the recommended passing distance of 1.5m, while cyclists should follow the road rules and be respectful to drivers and pedestrians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weston said he had almost become accustomed to terrible drivers but never imagined someone would intentionally run him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6030,95,23676,690,25597,13994,2082,692,3594,78,67069,101,13631,111,43,139,69,8145,34890,6730],"class_list":["post-88783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-again","tag-and","tag-cyclist","tag-dead","tag-edwards","tag-feared","tag-for","tag-he","tag-hit","tag-in","tag-jean","tag-left","tag-never","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-run","tag-walk","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88783","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=88783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}