Plea in memory of red-light runner's victim

Mark Tan-Wanklyn

Red-light cameras cannot return to Auckland soon enough for the employer of a motorcyclist killed at a notorious intersection on the way to visit his wife in hospital.

Mark Tan-Wanklyn had promised his wife he would be at her side when she woke from an operation at Auckland City Hospital in February last year.

Instead, he completed his journey to the hospital by ambulance with critical injuries after being knocked off his motorcycle at the intersection of Karangahape Rd, Symonds St and Grafton Bridge, and he was taken off life support two days later. He was 41.

The Australian-born technical salesman had begun crossing the intersection on green lights, next to a car which was heading for the Symonds St on-ramp to the Southern Motorway.

But that vehicle was rammed from the right by another car which had crashed through the red lights on Symonds St, shunting it into Mr Tan-Wanklyn's machine.

The driver of the northbound car pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving causing death after a police investigation concluded she was up to 100m from the intersection by the time the lights turned amber, and apparently did not notice them changing to red.

Mr Tan-Wanklyn's wife was devastated and has since returned to her homeland of Singapore, but his former employer spoke yesterday of his death, in response to a Weekend Herald survey in which 43 vehicles were seen running through red lights at that same intersection in one hour on Thursday afternoon.

The intersection is ranked Auckland's worst for deaths and injuries in the five years to December 31. A pedestrian was also killed there, in 2003, and six people have been injured.

It is one of 11 nominated for a proposed $400,000 trial of two or more new digital cameras to be rotated around the city if the Government approves a subsidy application from the Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

Stephen Lees said Mr Tan-Wanklyn was a good friend of his son as well as a valued member of his small electronics firm and his death was "completely avoidable".

He and his wife were newly married and had chosen New Zealand as the place to start a family.

Mr Lees said his former employee was a highly competent motorcyclist of 26 years' riding experience and had promised his wife he would be at her side when she woke from an operation.

"He was very reliable - when she woke up and he was not there, it took her hours to find out what had happened," Mr Lees said.

"She didn't know he was in the same hospital on a respirator, and she was of course devastated when she found out."

The crash was just one of 427 caused by motorists driving through red lights in Auckland City over five years, a practice which Mr Lees hopes can be wiped out, if only the offenders consider the possible consequences of their actions.

"My message to them is: 'You may not even see the person you are going to kill."'