“Knowing that could be anyone of us. I just can’t risk it,” he said. When commuting during morning rush hour, he noticed about one in six drivers using their phones. To make matters worse, along some sections of the road the cycle lane used to travel north is only about a metre wide, he said, with just a white line on the road separating cyclists from vehicles travelling at speeds of up to 100kmh.
NZTA
An aerial view of State Highway 2 south of Lower Hutt, near where Brent Norriss died. Wilkins said immediate remedial work was needed on the highway to keep cyclists safe while the cycleway was built. That could be as simple as painting more of the cycle lane green, to alert drivers to its presence.
A texting driver who killed a Wellington cyclist is allowed to drive again 23 February 2021
Khing Tiang Wong was driving on State Highway Two from Wellington towards Lower Hutt last February, when his van hit 65-year-old cyclist Brent Norriss.
Norriss was sent flying and died at the scene.
Wong was last year sentenced to home detention, and was disqualified from driving from 18 months.
However, he s today been granted a limited licence.
The 47-year-old appeared in the Wellington District Court this morning where a judge found he was suffering extreme hardship by not being able to drive, as he was at risk of losing his job.
Family of killed cyclist Brent Norriss devastated texting driver back behind wheel
23 Feb, 2021 07:53 PM
3 minutes to read
Khing Wong would have suffered extreme hardship if he was not granted a limited licence, a judge found. Photo / File
Khing Wong would have suffered extreme hardship if he was not granted a limited licence, a judge found. Photo / File
The family of a cyclist killed by a texting driver on a busy Wellington highway say it s a real kick in the guts to hear the driver is now allowed to drive again just three months after sentencing.
Khing Tiang Wong, 47, was granted a limited licence in the Wellington District Court this morning, meaning he can drive a car under certain restrictive conditions despite the fact he was disqualified from driving for a year and a half.
Last week Wong’s lawyer Chris Nicholls made an application for a limited driver licence for his client at the same court where he was sentenced. Police opposed the application. The case had been due to be heard on Thursday but was delayed after the presiding judge, Judge Arthur Tompkins, said he was unable to make a decision, because he had cycled the exact route on which Norriss was killed on numerous occasions and the behaviour of drivers on the road had given him cause for concern, though this was “nothing to do with this defendant”. “I would not feel appropriately neutral,” he said before standing down the case, so it could be heard by another judge.