'Hard case' scooter victim mourned

Police remove the scooter involved in a collision with a police car. Photo / Alan Gibson

The elderly man who died after his scooter rear ended a police car in Mt Maunganui was a popular man who always had a smile, say those who knew him.

Pensioner Alan Frederick Kappely, 83, died at Tauranga Hospital
yesterday afternoon after his scooter collided with a police car that had stopped to ticket a motorist at a busy Mt Maunganui intersection
earlier in the day.

A police crash investigation is now underway and the Independent Police
Complaints Authority has also been notified.

Mr Kappely lived with his wife Joy, 93, at the nearby Mt Maunganui
RSA Village, where he was well known among other residents.

"It's safe to say that he was very popular among the members. He was well known for the flags he flew on the back of his scooter and for his yellow helmet."

Mr Kappely enjoyed socialising at the RSA with other members, typically on Thursdays, and had been a keen golfer before giving up the sport.

"I'd known him for the last three years and we'd have a chat, and he'd
always have a smile. He'll be sorely missed and we're very sorry for his family."

The Bay of Plenty Times reported Mr Kappely had been a post and telegraph worker in Hamilton before he moved to Mount Maunganui and joined the RSA in 1992.

Eddie Pinkerton, a caretaker for 10 years at the RSA, told the newspaper that Mr Kappely was a "hard case".

"He used to go from here to Tauranga Hospital on that scooter for
appointments. Away he'd go, flags flying."

Mr Kappely frequented the St Vincent De Paul opportunity shop
near where he crashed and had visited the store just 30 minutes before the incident.

Shop volunteer Margaret Smith said Mr Kappely loved to ride his
scooter: "He was alwayson it and he would always park it out by the
window."

Mr Moss said village residents had rallied around Mr Kappely's
widow and family, who were not ready to speak to the Herald yesterday.

A private internment would be held for Mr Kappely next week.