Friends grieve for 'wonderful' nurse

Jane Bishop died on a stretch of Tamaki Drive which a triathelete who often travels on it says is particularly dangerous for cyclists because it is narrow and has a tight corner. Photo / Greg Bowker

The cyclist killed on Auckland's Tamaki Drive was a nurse on a working holiday who was yesterday remembered as "popular and fun-loving" by her workmates at an inner-city medical centre.

Jane Mary Bishop, 27, from East Sussex in England, died on Wednesday when she swerved to avoid a car door being opened and fell under a truck travelling in the same direction.

Ms Bishop's death was the fourth of five cycling fatalities in New Zealand this week.

The man who opened the car door was at home with family yesterday but could not speak about the tragedy.

"My husband is traumatised," his wife told the Herald.

Ms Bishop had worked at CityMed on Albert St since March, when she is believed to have started her working holiday in New Zealand.

Her colleagues yesterday placed a notice in their window, saying: "Please be patient with our staff as our lovely nurse Jane was fatally injured in an accident and we are all grieving her loss."

One staff member described her as a "happy, vibrant and fun-loving wonderful friend who will be sadly missed".

Bouquets of flowers and messages of condolence covered the centre's reception desk.

Triathlete Andy Dye, who often runs and cycles on Tamaki Drive, was running towards Mission Bay with two friends when they came upon the accident, near Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World and Orakei wharf.

Two doctors were with Ms Bishop and performing CPR.

"They started doing compressions. It seemed quite clear that she had gone under the wheel and was pinned in between the two back wheels. It looked quite obvious that it was not going to end well," Mr Dye said.

"There was concern and worry. The driver was getting advice from emergency services not to move the car because obviously she was still pinned."

The stretch of road on which the accident occurred was a "notorious corner" and a dangerous part of the route for cyclists, Mr Dye said.

"I always have to negotiate when cycling that. It's such a tight corner and it's narrow. And when you come around it, you've got cars immediately parked on the left - which is obviously where the car door was opened - and that's notoriously dangerous.

"You tend to ride in the middle, so [vehicles] don't pass you there and then pull over to the left when you're through the corner, because it's so dangerous."

Sergeant Matt Ford, of the Auckland police serious crash unit, said officers were still investigating the accident and no charges had been laid.

The fifth cycling fatality was Kay Heather Wolfe, 45, of Gordonton, who died in Waikato Hospital yesterday morning of injuries inflicted when she was struck by a car that crossed the centre line of a road near Morrinsville on Sunday.

Mrs Wolfe was the third cyclist to die as a result of that collision - Mark Andrew Ferguson, 46, and Wilhelm Muller, 71, were also killed.

Patricia Anne Veronica Fraser, 34, was killed near Sanson in Manawatu on Saturday while training for the Lake Taupo cycle race.

Regulatory changes

Transport Minister Steven Joyce yesterday promised to keep a close watch on inquiries into the cycling fatalities to see what could be done to prevent more deaths.

He said it was too early to say if something could be done in a "regulatory sense".

However he told Radio New Zealand this morning, he would be considering "regulatory changes" following the "tragic series of accidents" this week.

There would always be roads that were shared between cyclists, pedestrians and motorists, and it was "crucially important" people took care with other road users, particularly vulnerable road users such as cyclists, he said.

"There's no point being right...if you have an accident with a cyclist because a cyclist will always come off in a very bad shape as we've seen in the last couple of days.

People needed to follow the existing rules such as speed and red lights.

"The only way we get to change attitudes is if we all take the view that actually driving on our roads and being on our roads is a job in itself that we have to focus on, that we have to be careful because actually things can happen that we will regret for the rest of our lives."

He rejected a suggestion from cyclists' group Cycle Action that the Government did not care about cyclists as they did not contribute to road costs as "just silly".

"Obviously the Government is concerned about cycling, concerned about safety on our roads and very concerned about the recent spate of accidents, both cyclists and non-cyclists", he said.

- Additional reporting: Andrew Koubaridis, NZPA