Passers-by laughed at motorcyclist as he lay dying

By TIM DONOGHUE - The Dominion Post

Last updated 05:00 05/07/2010

A young motorcyclist was heckled and jeered at as he lay dying beneath a van in Wellington, residents claim.

Shelley McManis, 19, said she was at her Russell Tce flat with her flatmate about 11pm on Saturday when she heard a collision between a motorcyclist and taxi outside the back entrance to Wakefield Hospital.

As he lay groaning in agony two men laughed at him and passing motorists jeered "oh shame mate, you crashed", Ms McManis said.

"The man's bike bounced off the side of the taxi and he was catapulted into the front of a van on the other side of the street.

"Ambulance staff cut all his clothes off. He was groaning and in immense pain.

"After the accident I went to the front window of our flat and looked down. I saw two men standing over the young man laughing and mocking him as he lay dying.

"At first I thought it was a bag of rubbish they were standing over and laughing about. But when I went down there I saw it was a young man. What they did was disgusting."

Her flatmate, Valerie Sloss, 19, said she also heard laughing and jeering from the footpath.

The Victoria University arts student was too frightened to look out the window or go down to the street. "They were laughing like they were having fun.

"My immediate thought was that someone was crashing into bins or something outside." Ms Sloss said.

The 22-year-old motorcyclist was taken by ambulance to Wellington Hospital but died from his injuries soon after.

"Something else I found quite horrible is that there were people driving past and tooting while the ambulance people looked after the [Newton] motorcyclist," Ms McManis said.

"There were people in a car laughing at him [the victim] and saying 'oh shame mate, you crashed'. It was just disgusting."

The two men she saw mocking the motorcyclist were either Maori or Pacific Islanders, she said.

Ms McManis said the Indian taxi driver was distraught after the accident.

The dead man is yet to be named.

It was the second death of a motorcyclist in the city in two days. Another man died on the Wellington motorway on Friday night.

Wayne Francis McLaughlin, 58, a prominent Wellington IT businessman, died in a multi-vehicle pile up near the Aotea off-ramp about 6:30pm on Friday.

The father of two and his wife Dawn lived near Aotea Lagoon in Porirua.

Mr McLaughlin's brother Kevin described his brother as a loyal family man who was passionate about keeping his family together.

Ambulance officials and police emergency response manager Inspector Simon Perry refused to comment last night.

"Until I've had a chance to review the whole file I'm not saying anything about this," Mr Perry said.

From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3883612/Passers-by-laughed-at-motorcyclist-as-he-lay-dying