Rob at Bicycle Austin Blog recently found a video from New Zealand’s News 3 (which is apparently REALLY sponsored by Mazda) about a guy who was pepper sprayed and rammed because he wasn’t wearing a helmet. I know Kiwis are known for extreme sports like bungie jumping, but I didn’t know they were into extreme arrests.
Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha going to go when they crush your fork?
In New Zealand, it is against the law for anyone to ride without a helmet. Local Shaun Taylor was running late to work and didn’t have a helmet. Police told him to walk his bike and when he ignored them, they gave chase. The arrest ended with a police car jumping the curb and crushing the bike while Shaun got a face full of pepper spray and some time in the clink.
Aren’t we all glad there is no longer a bicycle helmet law now so we don’t have to worry about APD as well as irate motorists?
on Feb 20th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Typo — `it is against the law for anyone to wear a helmet’, probably not what you meant …
In any event, you could easily replace `helmet’ with `light at night’ and APD would be after you just like that — and perhaps rightfully so. If you’re going to ignore the cops and then run from them, you’d better either 1) succeed, or 2) be ready to accept the consequences.
Though crushing the bike with the car … the guy could have been seriously hurt. That doesn’t seem appropriate for a guy who’s running …
on Feb 20th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Typo fixed. Thanks.
Yeah, I was all ready to get outraged with this story until he talks about running away from the police. Slamming into his bike was an overreaction, but he couldn’t have expected that to end well.