John Madden has been trying to find the driver involved in an alleged hit and run earlier this year. Photo / Hayden Woodward
John Madden has been trying to find the driver involved in an alleged hit and run earlier this year. Photo / Hayden Woodward
An Auckland cyclist who was left battered in a hit-and-run three months ago has been unable to find the driver of the van that hit him — despite it being branded with a company logo.
John Madden says he was "left for dead" after the collision, which happened during hiscommute home to Glen Innes on January 19.
Heading downhill around a corner at 40km/h on a stretch of road with no bike lane, Madden was cycling wide of a row of parked cars when a van branded with a painting company's logo tried to overtake him.
The manoeuvre cut Madden off, and he hit the side of the van, tumbled over his handlebars and on to the road where he slid for several metres.
John Madden has been trying to find the driver involved in an alleged hit and run earlier this year. Photo / Hayden Woodward
He told the Herald he got a good look at the two men in the van, both wearing fluoro vests, and believed they would have seen him and heard him yell before the collision — but the vehicle drove off.
Thankfully the ute behind him stopped and the driver took him home, bruised and bleeding.
Madden reported the collision to police, and a doctor's visit confirmed the 26-year-old wasn't concussed, despite a substantial crack in his helmet.
Later that week Madden located grainy CCTV footage of the van at a local business and posted the image to Reddit, where users quickly identified the logo on the side — an Auckland painting company.
He said the owner promised he would look into the incident — and later told Madden that after asking his workers, none had been in the area that day.
The company had recently sold a van, and that must have been the vehicle at fault, the owner told Madden.
Subsequent emails to the owner, asking for the details of the new van owner, went unanswered, Madden said.
In response to the Herald's questions, the owner of the company — who the Herald has chosen not to name based on legal advice — said the van involved could have been the one I sold but he had "no way of verifying this".
"I did sell a van mid-way through last year, and I agreed with the new owner [that they would] take the sign writing off. I have no further comment to make as it has nothing to do with me or my company."
The police investigation had also stalled — Madden says he was told the officer in charge of his case was deployed to the 23-day anti-mandate protest on Parliament grounds in Wellington.
Eventually, police told Madden they had contacted the company and spoken to a different director. They had asked for the sold van's registration but he did not believe they received it.
Madden called the owner again to ask if he'd done everything in his power to help police with their investigation. That conversation got heated, Madden said, alleging the owner "told me to not be a dick and to leave him alone".
"I was like, how am I being the dick? I'm the one who was run over in the street."
The owner told the Herald: "I don't recall the specifics of this conversation but he was bordering on being very rude and alleging that I did not care about human safety, which made me very upset because I care about safety a lot."
Madden is back on his bike after a $900 repair job but three months later he told the Herald he was still jumpy when cars overtook too close to him.
While he understood police were very busy, he was incredibly frustrated he'd had to investigate his own case.
Police had told him that without a rego number they could not take the matter further.
"I just want the responsible party to be held to account for their actions. I was basically left for dead in the road and I have exhausted all other options," Madden said.
John Madden was left bleeding and bruised after colliding with a van on Remuera Rd in January. The van did not stop. Photo / Supplied
A police spokeswoman confirmed to the Herald that police had responded to a report of a crash on January 19, about 5.30pm, where a vehicle had collided with a cyclist and continued driving.
"Police have been making inquiries into the incident, including reviewing appropriate CCTV footage and speaking to witnesses.
"At this stage of the investigation all lines of inquiries have been exhausted, however police are open to revisiting should new information come to light."
They acknowledged this was frustrating for Madden.
They would not discuss the specifics of the investigation and would also not disclose individual deployments, but said "[a] large number of staff and from across the country were deployed to police the protest activity at Parliament".
Anyone with any information is asked to contact police on 105, quoting file number 220121/6725, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
